Denmark plans to conscript women for military service for first time

Prime minister says government wants ‘full equality between sexes’ as it plans to call up 5,000 conscripts a year from 2026

Women in Denmark are to be conscripted for military service for the first time under a proposed armed forces overhaul which comes amid Europe’s worsening relations with Russia and the war in Ukraine.

“We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it,” said the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen.