Ukrainian parliament passes mobilization bill expanding conscription efforts in second reading

On April 11, the Verkhovna Rada approved the draft law on mobilization as a whole, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko reported. The decision was supported by 283 lawmakers.

283 parliamentarians voted "for", one "against", and 49 abstained.

The legislators removed from the document the norm that would have provided for the demobilization of military personnel after 36 months of service by decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff with 227 votes for, wrote MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

Zheleznyak reported that the document was approved in the Committee's redaction.

"All the 31 amendments considered received votes for confirmation. No intrigue, except for the demobilization amendment (there are 227)," the lawmaker wrote.

Voting by factions:

→ Servant of the People: 192;
→ EU: 0;
→ Batkivshchyna: 2;
→ Platform for Life and Peace: 18;
→ Golos: 16;
→ Restoration: 16;
→ For Future: 12;
→ Trust: 15;
→ Independent: 12.

The head of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, in a comment to a LIGA.net journalist, noted that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi were present during the voting.

The commander of the Joint Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Yuriy Sodol, made a call to vote for the law.

Honcharenko previously laid out the main provisions of the bill, which made it to the second reading:

→ the rule on the right to dismissal from service of people with disabilities remains;
→ there is an opportunity to be released from service after capture;
→ men recognized as limited fit will be required to undergo a review within 12 months;
→ those who received disability groups 2 and 3 after February 24, 2022 (except military personnel) are subject to a repeated medical examination to determine fitness for service;
→ military personnel in the case of concluding the first contract have the right to compensation of 50% of the first installment for a loan secured by a mortgage;
→ restriction of consular services for men aged 18 to 60 without military registration documents;
→ it is also planned to limit the driving of vehicles to conscripts at the request of military commissariats.

In the first reading, the bill was adopted on February 7, but then the MPs adopted the document without the proposals of the specialized committee of the legislature. The lawmakers had two weeks to submit amendments, so it was predicted that the bill would be adopted as a whole at the end of February.

However, at that time more than 4,300 amendments were made to the document. As a result, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense approved the text of the draft law for the second reading only on April 9.