The Verkhovna Rada has passed a bill that would ease the penalties for unauthorised leaving of a military unit and desertion in Ukraine. This was reported by Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the European Solidarity party, as quoted by Komersant ukrainskyi
“The Rada supported the easing of responsibility for AWOL (No. 11322). There were 270 votes in favour. If a suspect of unauthorised leaving the unit expresses a desire to continue serving, he or she may be released from criminal liability. Moreover, he can return not only to his own unit, but also to another. Of course, this is subject to the consent of the commander and only once,” the MP said.
According to the adopted law, a serviceman who has left his place of service or military unit without permission for the first time during martial law may be released from criminal liability.
To do so, he or she must voluntarily inform the investigator or prosecutor of his or her intention to return to the military unit or place of service to continue his or her service before the pre-trial investigation is completed.
Exemption from criminal liability is possible only if the commander of the military unit gives written consent to the continuation of military service by this serviceman.
Earlier it was reported that this draft law concerns the closure of those criminal cases that already exist against deserters and will not apply to all, but only to those who have returned to the unit.
It is worth noting that recently, the head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine , Stanislav Kravchenko , stated that in 2023, 1577 people were convicted in Ukraine for unauthorisedly leaving a military unit.
In general, AWOL is the most common crime among the Ukrainian military. According to the State Judicial Administration, it accounts for 61% of all crimes in the military. In total, 2,585 servicemen were convicted in 2023, which is more than the year before, when there were 1,490 such cases.