Finally adopted: Is it law on mobilization or human rights
On Thursday, People’s Deputies voted on the draft law on mobilization. 283 People’s Deputies voted in favor, 1 deputy voted against, and 49 abstained. The draft law was voted in the committee’s version, without the provision on demobilization.
192 votes are from "Servant of the People, the ES - 0, Batkivshchyna - 2, Voice - 16, Platform for Peace - 18, Restoration - 16, For the Future - 12, Trust - 15, and unaffiliated - 12.
On Wednesday, the Rada considered amendments from opposition factions, but all of them were rejected. There were no more than 40 MPs in the hall. The consideration lasted until 2 a.m.
Censor.NET analyzed what remained of the original version of the draft law and what it will help to resolve or not.
How the Rada was appointed to be bad and why demobilization was removed
As you know, the first version of the draft law appeared on December 25, 2023, and caused a wave of outrage and fear, as its provisions provided for financial restrictions for evaders and the introduction of a mandatory account for the military. It also contained such clearly unconstitutional provisions as the deprivation of police officers and prosecutors of their positions as a result of their mobilization.
After that, the Ministry of Defense rewrote the draft law once again, and at the end of January, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft and submitted it to the Rada.
In January, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with the German TV channel ARD that he expected a comprehensive and fair law on mobilization to be adopted.
In particular, the President emphasized that mobilization contains an important aspect of demobilization.
"Many people have fought for many days. There are people who have been on the battlefield for 700 days. I am grateful to them for the defense of our country, as every Ukrainian is. But I believe that gratitude from society is not enough. We need fair rotations, we need to give extensive vacations," the president said.
Since March, the National Security Committee has been working on amendments to the draft law.
The deputies submitted more than 4,000 amendments to the text developed by the Defense Ministry.
In early March, deputies began working on the amendments.
Serhii Rakhmanin, a member of the committee and "Voice" People's Deputy, told Censor.NET that this time the committee worked according to a new scheme.
"Usually, the apparatus creates a working group that categorizes the amendments into those supported by the committee, taken into account, or partially taken into account. Now we, as a committee, have become a working group, reviewed what proposals we have to 16 blocks and submitted them," said the deputy.
After that, the comparative table was sent to the factions, and it was up to them to decide whether to insist on their amendments or not.
They insisted. Instead of the week that Rakhmanin had predicted, the committee's consideration was prolonged for another month.
However, back in early March, the deputy predicted that in any case, people would be dissatisfied with this draft law.
It was just a matter of choosing who - those who have been at the front for three years or potentially mobilized.
It seems they decided to appeal to the majority.
For the first month, the people's deputies could not decide on the principle of demobilization. Initially, it was about 36 months of continuous service.
But on April 9, the committee removed the provision on demobilization altogether. According to the deputies, the initiators of the removal were the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi and Defense Minister Rustem Umierov.
Now these norms will be written in a separate draft law.
"In fact, demobilization is impossible in principle. If it is allowed, we will be left without an army. Everyone understands this. We have only one question for the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff: why did you write this in? You know better than anyone that this is impossible. But now everyone is good, and only deputies are assholes," one of the deputies told Censor.NET.
According to the newspaper's sources, it was understood that this provision should be removed from the draft law long ago. "Both Zaluzhnyi and Shaptala were against demobilization, but they never spoke about it out loud, and now all military ranks are against it," the source said.
So the deputies did not want to take the blame for the fact that they were the ones who removed this provision. That's why Davyd Arakhamia created a scheme with "chain letters" from Umierov and Syrskyi.
The amendment on demobilization was removed by 227 votes. According to the EU deputy, 2 Batkivshchyna deputies "helped".
"Deputies Abdullin and Bondarov, together with OPZZh and Servants, voted against the possibility of demobilization," Herashchenko wrote.
Fundamentals of humanism
As for the actual provisions on mobilization, it became clear a few weeks ago that the draft law would be much more humane than the original version.
"This is not a draft law on mobilization, but on human rights," said one of the members of the relevant committee.
What are the three goals of this draft law?
-to strengthen mobilization;
-improve accounting;
-to provide a certain motivational package for those who are fighting.
As a result, the mobilization was only intensified by the signing of draft law 9281, which reduced the conscription age from 27 to 25. The draft law was adopted by deputies in May last year, but it has been awaiting the president's signature for all this time.
The draft law on mobilization itself does not create any new conditions for intensifying mobilization.
The original version of the draft law laid down rather strict rules for the registration of persons liable for military service.
In particular, it required registration in the account of persons liable for military service. In the new version, such registration is voluntary. You can update your data there in 60 days if you want, or not.
The provisions restricting the re-registration of property and blocking bank accounts were removed.
At the same time, after the adoption of the law, men aged 18 to 60 living abroad will not be able to receive consular services (including issuing a passport) if they have not updated their military registration data within 60 days of the law's entry into force.
Without up-to-date data, passports will not be issued not only at consulates but also at foreign branches of the state-owned document company.
"We are well aware that no one will return as a result of this rule, but we will at least understand how many of them are there," said one deputy off the record.
It's no big secret that the number of men serving abroad has increased rapidly in recent years.
If a person liable for military service violates the requirements, the TCR (Territorial Center for Recruitment) will now be able to request the National Police to carry out an administrative detention and bring him to the TCR. But if this does not happen, he must be notified within 5 days.
Now, a summons sent by mail will be considered served.
In addition, besides the TCR, local authorities and enterprises will now bear increased responsibility for the registration of persons liable for military service.
Motivational package and reservation of assistants
Realizing that they would have to be the scapegoats in the story of the draft law, deputies wanted to propose motivational norms in the law. But at the last moment, the main ones were removed.
According to Iryna Friz:
-The provision on a one-time additional payment of UAH 70 thousand to servicemen who are on the "zero line" was removed;
-Monthly payment of remuneration for the specifics of service in the amount of UAH 10 thousand
A fixed fee for destroyed equipment. However, according to Friz, the law provides for the payment of 4 to 300 times the subsistence minimum for destroyed (captured) weapons.
"In our country, only the president and the Cabinet of Ministers can do anything good, and everything bad must be shifted to the deputies," said one of the deputies off the record.
Therefore, instead of the law, the deputies voted for a resolution on April 11, and its provisions must now be written and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
The most difficult part was approving the amendments regarding people with disabilities.
"With certain safety mechanisms, but without violating the rights of citizens, in close cooperation with public associations, standards for the care of persons with disabilities I, II, III have been established," Friz wrote after the vote.
At the same time, her colleagues tell this story in a more colorful way. "We have voted on these standards 60 times. As soon as we approve them, the Ministry of Health comes and everything is wrong. We rewrote them, the Ministry of Social Policy came. We rewrite them again. Then the unions start to come..." the deputy says.
"The worst thing is that some of the norms that were not in the comparative table and we did not vote for them at the committee appeared in the hall. Regarding reservations, of course. We received the table in the parliamentary hall during the consideration. And at some point, our phones went red because our friends were calling and cursing us. Because there is an amendment about the reservation of two assistants. And we did not vote for this," the deputies are outraged off the record.
What is good about the draft law?
According to Friz, this is an opportunity to choose a unit for conscripts who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense;
-additional leave and remuneration for the destruction or capture of Russian weapons or equipment, the amount of which will be set by law and government regulations;
-the time spent on parental leave will be counted towards the length of service in the military rank;
-annual basic leave is granted in parts during the calendar year and the main uninterrupted part will be at least 15 calendar days;
-the right to a one-time compensation of 50% of the down payment on a mortgage loan and an additional UAH 100 thousand after the first year of military service and another UAH 100 thousand after the second year;
-servicemen and their spouses will not be accrued interest on the loan, penalties, fines for failure to fulfill obligations to banks and other organizations, except for loans for cars and real estate;
-the right to receive a certificate for the purchase of a vehicle in the amount of UAH 150 thousand within three months from the date of the first contract;
-one month of service for three months for being directly in the combat areas during martial law will be included in the length of service;
-in case of need for long-term treatment abroad, it will be possible to undergo a military medical commission remotely, and the relevant certificate of the MMC will be the basis for maintaining financial and material support;
-additional vacation leave of 90 calendar days without division into parts, upon request, after release from captivity with the preservation of financial support;
- the amount of one-time financial assistance in the event of the death of a serviceman is set at UAH 15 million.
In fact, it was the latter provisions that forced many people's deputies to support the draft law, which they would hardly call good if they were alone.
"If only the Servants voted for it, it would be a bad sign to the West that there is no unity on such an important issue. And at the same time, it would be a good signal to Russia," said one deputy.
At the same time, the deputies were outraged that Minister Umierov did not take the floor on the draft law. "He should have been the one to speak to the people's deputies, not Sodol, with all due respect to the commander of the joint forces," one of the deputies shared his thoughts.
Commenting on the decision, Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of the Voice party, noted that, most likely, due to the behavior of the representatives of the TCR and the MMC, deputies will have to return to reviewing the provisions of the draft law soon.
Tetiana Nikolaienko, Censor.NET
