The Verkhovna Rada may introduce a draft law on the possibility of mobilizing convicts next week, Minister of Justice Denys Malyuska said in a telethon on the evening of March 9.
According to him, there are "thousands of prisoners and convicts" who are ready to become military personnel.
Malyuska also noted that at the request of the military, the possibility of mobilizing those convicted who violated military discipline, committed crimes related to the performance of their military duty, or crimes against statehood was excluded from the draft law. In addition, he noted that not all commanders are ready to accept convicts into their units.
"We will not and do not plan to impose such mobilized servicemen on anyone. Perhaps these will be separate units. But in any case, only commanders who understand who they will be dealing with, how to work with it, will receive the appropriate units," Malyuska explained.
The minister stressed that the last word will be with the parliament, which, according to him, can adopt the draft law by the end of spring.
Regarding previous events:
In February, the Ministry of Justice announced that they plan to propose "more radical" measures to mobilize convicts. In addition, the department announced that they are working on the issue of prisoner mobilization.
This happened after the Verkhovna Rada in the first reading supported the updated government bill No. 10449 on military service, mobilization and military registration.
In general, the new law provides for the following innovations:
- if the serviceman has been in the service continuously for 36 months, this will be grounds for dismissal. The draft law also provides for a change in the conscription age from 27 to 25 years;
- people will not need to go to the TCC to update their data. It will be possible to do this online in a personal account or TsNAP;
- after mobilization, all citizens will undergo mandatory military training within 2-3 months. The government emphasizes that people cannot be sent to the front immediately after mobilization;
- it is assumed that the financial support will be at least 20 thousand hryvnias per month without taking into account the additional remuneration, which for the period of martial law is from 30 to 100 thousand hryvnias.
In addition, in the new draft law, it is proposed to call up convicts who have been released from punishment with probation for military service at will.
However, the deputies submitted more than four thousand amendments: both manually and electronically. As a result, according to Roman Kostenko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, the draft law may ultimately undergo significant changes.
