Parliament passes draft law on mobilisation in first reading

At a meeting on 7 February, the Verkhovna Rada passed a draft law on mobilisation in the first reading.

243 MPs voted in favour, said MP Iryna Herashchenko. The Servants of the People party cast only 178 votes. 

  The bill will be amended for the second reading. Earlier, the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamiya, predicted that the second reading could also take place in February.

"The draft law was adopted without the Committee's proposals. Next, amendments will be made within 14 days until 21 February, followed by the second reading. That is, the bill as a whole is most likely to be adopted in the last week of February, signed in early March and enter into force in a month, that is, in April," said MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak. 

Draft law on mobilisation

• The General Staff, the Ministry of Defence and MPs have been working on the draft law on mobilisation for several months. The first version of the document proposed to abolish conscription, oblige all Ukrainian citizens, including women, to register, and lower the mobilisation age from 27 to 25.
• The relevant parliamentary committee began considering the new draft law on mobilisation on 4 January. At that time, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, Chief of the General Staff Serhiy Shaptala and Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov came to report.
• At the committee meeting, it was decided to remove the provision that would have allowed summons to be sent by email, said Yehor Chernyev, deputy chairman of the Defence Committee. According to him, it is impossible to control this and it is impossible to find out whether a person has received such a summons. There was also a question about the conscription of people with disabilities - the Rada wants all groups of such people to be exempt from mobilisation, as before.
• Finally, on 11 January, a conciliation board met, and afterwards, the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arakhamiya, said that the draft law on mobilisation had been returned to the Cabinet of Ministers for revision.
• The government submitted a new version only on 30 January. The document provided for a ground for dismissal from military service 36 months after mobilisation, but this is only a ground, and the consent to dismissal must be given by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Office. They decided to cancel conscription, but want to introduce compulsory military training.