For 2026, annual conscription in Lithuania has been increased from 3,500 to 5,000 people.picture: assembly watson
In view of the Russian threat, Lithuania is tightening its military conscription and calling up more young people for military service. For many students, military service is primarily a pragmatic decision, motivated more by compensation or securing their future than by patriotism.
May 11, 2026, 9:30 p.mMay 11, 2026, 9:30 p.m
Katarzyna SKIBA, Lithuania / afp
In a high school in Vilnius, Rokas and his friends talk about their future – studies, work and… Military service: Lithuania, a small country on the border with Russia, recruits thousands of young people. Voluntary or forced, service is performed more out of pragmatism than patriotism. Although authorities have been concerned about the Russian threat since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, most students surveyed are unenthusiastic about the idea of spending nine months in military service.
“I would say that around ten percent of the volunteers are real patriots,” says 18-year-old Rokas, who, like his classmates, does not want to give his last name. In the graduating class, they are all affected by the new conscription rule, which was recently revised and now affects all able-bodied men aged 18 to 22 in this Baltic state, which was occupied by the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1990.
translation
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Some anticipated the call-up notice and dutifully volunteered. Others say they want to complete their military service as quickly as possible, and still others admit they are lured by the salary. Lithuania partially reintroduced compulsory military service in 2014 after Russia occupied Crimea in Ukraine. And since 2022, recruitment modalities have been constantly evolving.
For 2026, the annual list of conscripts in this EU and NATO country with almost 2.9 million inhabitants was increased from 3,500 to 5,000 people. The number of exceptions, especially for university students, has been reduced. The young conscripts can choose whether they want to be automatically called up or register as “volunteers”, giving them the right to decide on the time and place of their service, as well as receiving significantly higher pay (up to 30% more).
“Getting it over with”
The government is banking on the national pride of its youth. “We are confident that this year will perhaps be the first in which we will only have ‘volunteers’,” Deputy Defense Minister Karolis Aleksa told AFP.
Last year, the number of voluntary conscripts had already increased by 50% compared to 2023. But those affected give very different motives, if not even reluctantly to go into service. Vykintas volunteered, but says he’s “not really excited about the army.” However, he believes it is better to do his service “right after school to get it over with.”
Valentinas admits he has no other plans. “I don’t know what to do with my future (…), so the army is an excellent option.” Dominikas, on the other hand, would “prefer not to go at all”.
“That would mess up my course of study.”
Valentina’s
Lithuania and the other two Baltic states (Estonia and Latvia) embarked on the path of rearmament as early as 2014. They are among the NATO member states with the highest military spending; This amounts to 5.38 percent of GDP in Lithuania this year. “The main goal is to increase the size of the professional army and especially the number of reservists,” Tomas Janeliunas, professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences at Vilnius University, told AFP.
Wage increase
According to the deputy defense minister, his country is aiming for “universal conscription for men”. A poll published in 2024 found that a large majority of Lithuanians (63 percent) support universal conscription, while the army remains the most respected public institution with a trust index of 80 percent.
Various paramilitary organizations also report a sharp increase in the population’s interest in their activities. «In 2021, the (state-sponsored) Union of Lithuanian Riflemen (LRU) had just over 10,000 members. We currently have almost 20,000,” explains spokeswoman Jurga Chomskyte.
These organizations aim to instill patriotism in Lithuanian youth, particularly through mandatory three-day internships organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. But the young recruits do not always share this perspective, and if the number of “volunteers” increases from year to year, this can often be explained by very pragmatic reasons.
“It’s more due to (…) the salary increase,” which can amount to up to 8,000 francs over the nine months of service, says Tomas, also a student. However, he is one of those who accept the principle of conscription: “Otherwise no one would be there,” he says.
Most simply call for service modalities to be better tailored to young people, particularly study curricula and other aspects of private life.