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Ukraine's Supreme Court rules on religious exemptions
Summary
A look back at the Supreme Court decision of 1 May 2025 and the political news in the days before it.
What did Ukraine's Supreme Court decide about religious exemptions from military service on 1 May 2025? It ruled against granting such exemptions during wartime, in the case of a member of Jehovah's Witnesses who had refused to be mobilised.
The ruling addressed a single case, brought by a man who declined mobilisation. The court's decision went against religious exemptions from military service while martial law was in force.
Other developments in the preceding days
Two other items had been reported a few days earlier, on 28 April 2025. A Ukrainian court sentenced former president Viktor Yanukovych in absentia to 15 years in prison. He was convicted of inciting Ukrainian officials to desert and of organising an illegal crossing of the border with Russia during his flight in 2014.
On the same day, Russian president Vladimir Putin declared a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine for 8–10 May, to mark Victory Day in the Second World War.
Together, the reports from 28 April and 1 May showed a country dealing with the legal and political consequences of war and of its recent past, while the question of a ceasefire was being raised by Moscow.
