Lithuania to reinstate compulsory military service

Lithuania says it will reinstate the country’s compulsory military service for young men due to “growing aggression” in Ukraine.

President Dalia Grybauskaite made the announcement on Tuesday after a meeting of military leaders and top government officials.

Vilnius will reinstate mandatory national service for a period of five years starting next September. The compulsory service had been abolished in 2008, four years after Lithuania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The first group drafted will include some 3,000 men aged 19 to 27, who will serve for nine months.