Draft bill #11079 of March 13, 2024 

Cosponsors: a group of 14 MPs from the factions Holos, Servant of the People, and the group Restoration of Ukraine with Olena Shuliak as the first signatory 

Status: sent for review to the Law Enforcement Committee of the Verkhovna Rada 

Who is affected: individuals serving sentences (imprisonment or restriction of freedom), the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the State Criminal-Executive Service of Ukraine 

Summary: 

  • during martial law, it will be allowed to mobilize individuals serving sentences of imprisonment or restriction of freedom, except for those convicted of crimes against the national security of Ukraine. For prisoners ready to serve in the military under contract it will be allowed to use provisional early release 
  • a court will be allowed to provisionally release a convicted individual from serving a sentence for mobilization and military service under contract if this individual expresses a desire to serve and meets the requirements of military service 
  • if an individual gets a provisional early release, signs a contract, and then commits a new offense, the court will impose a penalty based on the sum of sentences and credit the previous imprisonment term 
  • if a person provisionally released for service under contract evades military service, they will face 5 to 8 years of imprisonment 
  • a decision on provisional early release of a person from serving a sentence will be immediately sent by the court to the recruitment center 
  • after the decision is sent, the National Guard will deliver the person to the recruitment center and hand them over for signing a contract and dispatching to a specialized regiment of the military unit for service 
  • administrative supervision over mobilized prisoners will be ensured by special accounting of former prisoners by the military unit 
  • the contract of mobilized prisoners will be terminated and service members who served under contract will be dismissed from military service on the following grounds: 
    • due to health condition — based on the conclusion of the military medical commission about unfitness for military service with exclusion from military records or about unfitness for military service subject for review in 6 to 12 months 
    • after the court’s guilty verdict appointing a penalty in the form of incarceration or restriction of freedom comes into force 
    • after the end of the special period or declaration of demobilization. 

What is right: the draft bill introduces regulations on the provisional early release for individuals who have expressed a desire to serve under contract and standardizes their admission to military service, which will help increase the mobilization potential of the state. The draft bill also regulates issues of social and legal protection of mobilized prisoners and the implementation of administrative supervision over them.