Martial law — JW Files

UkraineConfirmed

Appeal court upholds a Jehovah's Witness ministerial servant's call-up after an official inspection found his delivery to the recruitment centre broke a clergy rule

Illustration: three stacked official orders with intact seals on a bench, set apart from a single lower inspection memorandum whose seal is broken

The Eighth Appellate Administrative Court in Lviv dismissed the appeal on 3 September 2026, leaving a Rivne judgment of 16 February 2026 in place. Both judgments record, as a fact no party disputed, that an official inspection found recruitment-centre officials in breach of the Commander-in-Chief's order of 16 December 2024 barring the detention and forced delivery of clergy of registered religious organisations. Neither court treated that as a reason to cancel the call-up, the unit posting or the cadet appointment, and neither returns to the finding after listing it. Police delivered the claimant on 22 April 2025; medical board, summons, call-up order and unit posting all followed within 48 hours.

· September 3, 2026 · 20 min read

UkraineConfirmed

Seven Ukrainian verdicts naming Jehovah's Witnesses over military service in five weeks

Illustration: seven judicial bench rails each holding a closed case file, with an empty cooking pot and a folded notice on a table in the foreground

Five men who refused a mobilisation call-up each drew three years, four of them suspended. The two the army had already taken in drew five years, neither suspended — one a man posted as a cook in a supply section, who told the Stryi court he had applied for alternative service in 2022. All are trial-court verdicts, and only one is recorded as having taken legal effect.

· September 7, 2026 · 12 min read