Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense is preparing to tighten punishment for evading mobilization

The Ministry of Defense is preparing a draft law to tighten penalties for evading mobilization.

This was reported by TSN.ua, citing comments from Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.

“I think in the near future it will be presented to the committee. Then we will be able to discuss it more. The idea is that the lives of those who do not fulfill their constitutional duty to defend Ukraine should not be easier than the lives of those who, for example, do not pay child support. Right now, stricter measures are applied to child-support nonpayers than to those who evade being called up for military service,” the deputy said.

He also believes the bill should reduce the number of conflicts between civilians and the territorial recruitment centers: “We need to remember what the president said about minimizing cases accompanied by conflicts during mobilization. This is one of the key tasks that both the committee understands, the president has voiced, and Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov understands. That is, to minimize any conflict situations so that the territorial recruitment centers are not accused of human rights violations and so that the Russian Federation does not use this as part of its information and psychological warfare.”

Venislavskyi did not specify exactly how tougher measures would reduce conflicts with the recruitment centers. However, he added that the plan is to introduce norms that would both eliminate conflict situations and make it impossible to evade fulfilling military duty.

It is noted that in Ukraine, evading payment of child support can lead to the seizure (arrest) of property and bank accounts.

Previously, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine proposed introducing similar restrictions (like those used for child-support nonpayers) for servicemen who leave their unit without authorization.

It was also recalled that MP Ruslan Horbenko said that forced street mobilization in Ukraine will not stop, and that the country’s mobilization resources would last for about a year and a half more of war.