[EPA]
[EPA]

Voluntary enlistment is surging in Lithuania, a Baltic state that shares a border with Russia, while Germany is seeing a sharp rise in conscientious objector applications amid fears that mandatory military service could be reinstated — highlighting starkly different attitudes toward military service across Europe.

More than 8,100 enlistment applications have been submitted to the Lithuanian military this year, according to Yonhap, citing Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT. Military authorities said 4,400 people volunteered before the annual conscription list was drawn up, with another 3,700 expressing a preference to enlist ahead of schedule.

Lithuania reinstated conscription in 2015 after security concerns mounted following Russia's forced annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The country currently selects about 5,000 men between the ages of 18 and 22 each year for three to nine months of military service.

Before the war in Ukraine broke out, voluntary enlistments numbered around 2,000 per year, but the figure has risen sharply of late.

The Lithuanian military said the record number of applications "shows that young people are increasingly aware of the importance of national security and their role in the defense system," and urged applicants not to put their academic plans on hold for the military, as not all volunteers can be accommodated.

Lithuania, with a population of about 2.8 million, occupies a strategically critical position between Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad and Belarus, a close Russian ally. Since the war in Ukraine began, the country has nearly doubled its annual intake from about 3,000 to close to 6,000, yet total troop strength still stands at around 20,000.

To bolster its defenses, Lithuania has secured a permanent stationing of a German Bundeswehr armored brigade on its soil and plans to expand the permanent garrison to 5,000 troops next year. The country is also considering introducing universal conscription that would require all men of eligible age to serve.

Germany, meanwhile, is moving in a very different direction.

Germany maintains a volunteer military as it pursues the goal of building Europe's strongest conventional armed forces, but the prospect of conscription being revived has prompted a rapid increase in conscientious objector applications.

According to German outlet RND, 5,862 conscientious objector applications were filed in the first half of this year alone — already surpassing the full-year totals for 2024 (2,998) and 2025 (3,867), and exceeding the 4,348 applications recorded in 2011, the last year Germany had mandatory military service.

Germany continues to accept such applications because constitutional provisions on both military service obligations and the right to conscientious objection remain in force even after conscription was abolished.

The German government, which has been rearming since the war in Ukraine began, introduced a new military service law in January. It aims to expand the active-duty force from its current level of about 180,000 to between 255,000 and 270,000 by 2035.

However, the government is also reforming the system to allow conscription to be reintroduced in the event of a national crisis or troop shortage, drawing pushback particularly from students. Protests involving class boycotts have been held across the country, driven by fears that young people could be compelled to serve regardless of their wishes.

As the war in Ukraine drags on and security anxieties over Russia persist, European countries are making different choices about how to build and sustain their armed forces. Nations that feel a direct military threat are seeing voluntary enlistment rise, while those where conscription could return are experiencing a surge in objector applications — a clear sign that the shifting security environment is reshaping how young people think and act.


rainbow@heraldcorp.com