Facing Mobilisation if Returned to Ukraine? A Recent Tribunal Decision Offers Hope
For many Ukrainian nationals in the UK, the future remains unclear. Those on the Ukraine schemes hold permission with fixed end dates. Extensions have been introduced, but they do not offer long-term security, and nobody can say with confidence what will happen once they run out.
Others are in an even more difficult position. Not every Ukrainian in the UK can use the Ukraine schemes. People who were already here on other routes, such as private life, are often unable to switch because they did not meet the schemes’ requirements, for example because they were not living in Ukraine at the relevant time.
For men of military age, all of this raises one pressing concern: what happens if they are sent back while mobilisation is ongoing?
A successful appeal
We recently represented a Ukrainian man in exactly this situation. His protection claim had been refused by the Home Office, and in October 2026 the First-tier Tribunal allowed his appeal. He was granted humanitarian protection, and the Tribunal found that removing him to Ukraine would breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.
Why the Home Office’s position did not hold
The Home Office accepted that our client would be liable for military service if returned. However, it argued that refusing to serve would not lead to serious consequences, relying on older statistics and earlier tribunal guidance that suggested draft evaders in Ukraine were rarely prosecuted or imprisoned.
The Tribunal agreed with us that this picture is out of date. Much of that evidence came from before the full-scale invasion in February 2022, before martial law, and before the current mobilisation regime. Having considered recent country evidence and a detailed expert report, the judge found that a person who refuses mobilisation today faces a real risk of prosecution, of being detained while the case proceeds, and of imprisonment if convicted. The Tribunal also found that conditions in Ukrainian detention centres and prisons remain serious enough to amount to inhuman or degrading treatment.
What this means for you
Every case turns on its own facts, and one decision does not guarantee the outcome of another. What this result does show is that the Home Office’s standard approach to mobilisation-related claims can be successfully challenged when a case is built on strong, up-to-date evidence and presented properly.
