Found unfit for service: arranging discharge from Ukraine’s army
A medical finding and a completed military discharge are separate stages. What documents a discharge request requires and what to clarify before leaving hospital.
An Armed Forces of Ukraine service member being found unfit for service does not mean their military discharge has already been completed. The official Army+ website provides for submitting a health-based discharge request with supporting documents, after which the discharge decision is formalised by an order. This must be distinguished both from leaving hospital and from being excused from military duties.
To submit an electronic request, select the military discharge section and the health-based option, labelled “За станом здоров’я”. Army+ guidance says to attach a photograph of the military medical commission’s ruling or other documents confirming the person’s health condition. The full list of required documents appears while creating the request. This type of electronic request became available in the app in April 2025.
It is then important to track the request’s progress, not simply whether it was sent. The app’s official website lists separate statuses for approval in progress, registration, awaiting signature, rejection and approval by the unit commander. A request’s status should not be equated with a completed discharge: according to the guidance, the commander informs the service member when the decision has been formalised by an order.
Guidance published by Ukraine’s free legal aid system on 3 January 2023 describes the procedure as a sequence of separate actions: sending the medical commission’s conclusion to the unit, preparing personnel documents, issuing an order, handing over the post and removing the service member from the personnel rolls. The medical document and the personnel process are therefore not the same stage.
There are two possible routes for arranging military discharge after treatment. As military lawyer Oleksandr Babenko explains in a publication dated 5 November 2026, Article 262 of the Armed Forces’ Internal Service Statute provides for service members found unfit to be sent, during a special period, to territorial recruitment and social support centres to receive discharge documents from their units. According to his explanation, the instruction approved by Defence Ministry Order No. 280 allows a service member to be sent directly from a medical facility to such a centre on the basis of a personal request. If they wish to submit documents in person at their unit instead, they are sent there after treatment, also on the basis of a personal request. The lawyer stresses that this procedure concerns the Armed Forces, not the National Guard or the State Border Guard Service.
Babenko also explains that if a wound, injury or illness physically prevents a service member from submitting a request personally, another person, including a medical facility representative, may draw it up at the service member’s decision; the head of the facility certifies that request. Separately, the lawyer considers leaving hospital before the certificate of illness has been completed and approved, with only a medical commission certificate excusing the person from duties. In his view, that certificate alone does not entitle someone to travel independently to a recruitment and social support centre and wait there for the ruling’s approval: in that situation, the service member must report to the unit or another location designated by the commander, remaining excused from duties for the specified period. This is the lawyer’s legal assessment and should be distinguished from the referral to a recruitment centre on the basis of a request that he describes.
In practical terms, before leaving hospital it is worth clarifying three points with the medical facility and the chain of command: whether the medical commission documents have been completed and received any necessary approval, where the post-treatment referral directs the person, and whether the unit has received the discharge documents. Then check the request’s registration and the issuing of the order. For obstacles involving electronic requests, the official Army+ website lists the Defence Ministry hotline, 1512; legal advice is available from the free legal aid system on 0 800 213 103.
Primary sources
Documents and statements this story is based on.