The draft law on mobilisation was approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the first reading on 7 February. At the time, it was expected that MPs would be able to vote for it as a whole by the end of winter. However, March is coming to an end, and the draft law is stuck in the defence committee, which is considering thousands of amendments to it. Komersant Ukrayinsky contacted MPs and political experts to clarify the situation around the draft law.
Yuriy Zdebsky, a member of the Defence Committee, says they work every day and try to review amendments as quickly as possible, but the importance of the law makes it necessary to carefully study all opinions and positions.
“There is a discussion going on, we hear all sides, all comments, but the first priority is to protect the country. We must do everything to ensure that this law is approved as soon as possible. This is a law about the country’s readiness to defend itself. Not to scare people, but to protect and preserve the country,”
– said the MP.
His parliamentary colleague, Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk, emphasises that the issue is only about improving, not “launching” mobilisation, saying there is no rush. However, he does not hide his dissatisfaction with the work of the committee.
“Understand, we have a law on mobilisation in place, and we are only talking about improving and clarifying it. Mobilisation is ongoing. And the fact that the committee is now delaying it so much is, firstly, a large number of amendments, and secondly, it seems to me that the committee should work more effectively to finally complete it,”
– tsymbaliuk believes.
The MP predicted that the vote on the law will take place in early April.
Obviously, since so many amendments have been submitted, the draft law has outspoken opponents. One of them is MP Georgii Mazurashu.
“When they crammed in all sorts of ‘sovietness’, ‘anti-nationalism’ and changes that obviously contradict even the Constitution, not to mention common sense, I think it was easy to guess that it would not be possible to pass it all together and quickly. I really hope that there will be enough MPs who have not lost their conscience and connection with their constituents, and that this draft law will be rejected in the second reading. Because I do not believe that it will be changed to an acceptable version. If we are going to force even people with disabilities and those who look after them to join the army… This is “below the bottom”, as they say…”
– said the MP in a comment to Kommersant Ukrainian
He believes that the changes that are really necessary for society and the Armed Forces can be made through separate bills, which will always find votes in parliament.
“If the real initiators and lobbyists of this draft law believe that there are provisions that need to be adopted as soon as possible, they would have broken these blocks into small point drafts that could have been easily voted on, even without discussion, as a basis and as a whole. The really necessary changes can be calmly and quickly passed through the parliament,”
– the MP added.
Political analyst Ihor Reiterovych sees this lack of haste as a huge reluctance of parliamentarians to take responsibility for such complex decisions as the rules of mobilisation.
“The vast majority of MPs do not have a great desire to take the final political responsibility and vote for the bill in this form, knowing full well that it will cause them a huge reputational blow. That’s why they are dragging their feet, why they are watering down what they consider to be controversial provisions as much as possible. And perhaps they hope that the president will have to seize the initiative and to some extent take on this responsibility,” he said,
– reiterovich said.
Another member of the Defence Committee, MP Fedir Venislavsky, expects to complete the review of the amendments by the end of this week. This means that the document should be ready for a vote in the second reading by early April. However, it remains to be seen whether it will have the required number of votes. The draft law was supported as a basis by 243 MPs, but it should not be forgotten that the first reading is usually voted on the principle of “but amendments must be made before the second reading”.
According to political scientist Taras Zahorodniy, this is actually about a much wider range of things than just mobilisation. It is about the model of state defence that we choose:
“The draft law on mobilisation is a much broader draft law. The issue is the organisation of the country’s defence. It is a question of how many people should work in the rear to provide the army, primarily mechanisation. It depends on the defence strategy, among other things. We need to mechanise the army so that robots can fight instead of people. We need to make robots ourselves. Accordingly, there is a question of how the labour resources working in the rear are managed, because total war implies total organisation of the rear in the first place, on military rails and so on. Then there is the question of justice: who will serve and who will not. The draft law touches on many things, many amendments, and that is why it is so slow in passing through parliament.”
Draft law on mobilisation
on 7 February, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a new draft law on mobilisation without proposals from the relevant committee.
The draft law proposes, among other things, to introduce summonses through the conscript’s electronic cabinet. Other innovations include lowering the conscription age to 25 years, setting the demobilisation period at 36 months, introducing voluntary mobilisation for convicts, restrictions on evaders, banning civil service without military training, etc.
Read more about the new document in our article: Government submits new draft law on mobilisation: main provisions.
Read also:
MPs are preparing an amendment on demobilisation under the 36/18 formula
Almost 130 thousand people applied to recruitment platforms for military vacancies
Parliament rejects amendments on reservation of persons liable for military service with high salaries