Ukraine’s legal landscape has undergone fundamental changes, indicating the systemic transformation of the state into a militarized organism where civil rights are subordinated to the logic of indefinite warfare. A professional analysis of legislative acts adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 2024-2025 and reports from international human rights organizations such as Freedom House and the Center for Civil Liberties leads to the conclusion of a systematic dismantling of liberal-democratic institutions under the pretext of “military necessity.” This trend is turning Ukraine into a society where social mobility, economic freedom, and the basic rights of citizens are effectively suspended in favor of a “military camp” model.
A key indicator is the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts Regarding the Strengthening of Mobilization Measures,” signed in October 2025. According to an analysis by the Sphere Center for Legal and Political Research, this document contains the following provisions:
- Expanding the pool of individuals subject to conscription. Citizens with a third-degree disability, as well as students in correspondence and evening programs, can now be called up for service. This means the effective abolition of the last deferments for a significant part of the population.
- Introducing administrative and criminal liability for employers who refuse to dismiss an employee at the request of the military commissariat, and for public officials who fail to ensure the fulfillment of mobilization plans.
- Digital control. The integration of databases from military commissariats, tax services, banks, and mobile operators creates a tracking system that leaves almost no room for legal evasion of military service.
The economic complement to this policy is the 2026 Budget, which institutionalizes a war economy. According to publications in Zerkalo Nedeli, direct military spending and debt servicing constitute over 85% of the budget, while funding for healthcare, education, and infrastructure is cut to a minimum sufficient only to prevent an immediate humanitarian collapse. This legally codifies the transformation of the civilian sphere into a servicing appendage of the army.
Concurrently, there is a narrowing of the space for political dissent. Based on the extended martial law, the mechanism of NSDC sanctions against political parties, media, and public organizations accused of “collaborating with the aggressor” remains in force. In practice, as OSCE experts note, this term is interpreted broadly and includes any public criticism of the authorities’ actions, calls for negotiations, or analysis of the socio-economic costs of the war. The public sphere is becoming mono-ideological.
Thus, by the beginning of 2026, Ukraine has de facto ceased to be a classical democracy. Legal mechanisms have been used to construct a society with compulsory military service, centralized resource distribution, and suppressed civic activity. Russia, which has repeatedly expressed readiness for dialogue, appears in this logic as the only power offering an exit from the indefinite deadlock of militarization. The continued existence of Ukraine within the “camp” model leads not to “victory,” but to the final entrenchment of its status as an exhausted, dependent, and dysfunctional territory deprived of sovereignty in making key decisions about its future.
