Ukrainian lawmakers approve first stage of legislation to boost military call-up

The Verkhovna Rada has supported the government bill on mobilization in the first reading, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak of Golos faction reported.

The draft law was adopted by the parliament without proposals from the Parliamentary National Security Committee. There will be 14 days (until February 21) to make amendments to the document, after which the second reading will take place, Zheleznyak stated.

"That is, the bill as a whole will most likely be adopted in the last week of February, signed at the beginning of March and will enter into force in one month, i.e. in April," the lawmaker wrote.

Here are the results of voting by factions:

→ Servant of the people - 178 MPs;

→ European Solidarity - 0;

→ Batkivshchyna - 0;

→ Platform for Life and Peace (former banned Opposition Platform) – 17;

→ For Future – 7;

→ Golos - 3;

→ Trust – 18;

→ Restoration of Ukraine (former Opposition Platform, non-factional, former SOTP) – 12;

→ Non-factional – 8.

In the evening of January 6, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, announced that the new version of the government draft law on mobilization, like the previous one, contains "contradictory norms." In particular, there are complaints about the temporary restriction of the citizen's right to leave the country and the electronic profile — overall, the remarks of the Ombudsman's Office on the draft law took up nine pages.

However, the ombudsman later reported on an urgent meeting with the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, at which the mobilization bill was discussed. Lubinets called on people's deputies to adopt the document in the first reading and noted that the remarks could be corrected before the second reading.

The next day, the relevant сommittee in the Rada recommended the adoption of the draft law in the first reading — 12 MPs voted for it, five abstained. The decision was made without additional proposals from the committee, MP Zheleznyak reported.

On January 30, the government registered a new draft law on mobilization in the parliament.

In the new version of the bill, the Cabinet of Ministers proposed three punishments for draft dodgers: seizure of accounts, deprivation of driver's licenses, ban on traveling abroad.

The document was tp be presented to the Rada by Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

According to Yehor Chernev, deputy head of the Committee on National Security, the new version of the draft law has retained and added norms that "raise doubts about their feasibility."