France unveils new voluntary military service amid heightened Russia tensions

PARIS – 27 November 2025: France will introduce a voluntary military service for 18- and 19-year-olds from 2026, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, as European states step up defence efforts in response to growing concerns over Russia.

Macron said the scheme would start with 3,000 participants in 2026, rising to 10,000 by 2030 and 50,000 by 2035.

He said France needed “mobilisation” to be “ready and respected,” describing the plan as an answer to an “acceleration of crises.”

Macron’s push to strengthen France’s defences comes as the war in Ukraine has been ongoing for its fourth year and French officials increasingly warn that Russia may not halt its ambitions at Ukraine’s borders.

"The day that you send a signal of weakness to Russia, which for 10 years has made a strategic choice to become an imperial power again, that’s to say advance wherever we are weak, well, it will continue to advance," Macron told radio RTL this week, the AFP reported.

His comments followed a controversial warning by France’s armed forces chief, General Fabien Mandon, who said the country must be prepared “to lose its children” and that Russia could be gearing up for a confrontation with European states by 2030.