Booking of police officers and emergency services: lawyers comment on controversial decisions

Over the past three months, a lot of significant changes have taken place in the field of military law. The adopted changes in the legislation cause heated disputes among experts and many debates in social networks. An even greater controversial reaction is caused by numerous draft laws that sometimes appear before the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, then are withdrawn and sent for revision.

One of the surprises was the information regarding the booking of police and emergency services personnel from mobilization. More precisely, not the reservation itself, but the fact that at present they are subject to mobilization on a general basis and are not exempted from it due to the nature and conditions of work. “FAKT” IA asked the lawyers of the “Repeshko and Partners” bar association to comment on this situation.

On May 18, 2024, the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Certain Issues of Military Service, Mobilization, and Military Registration” entered into force. In accordance with these changes in the Law of Ukraine “On Mobilization Training and Mobilization”, it was determined that conscripts who work or are serving, in particular, in:

• state authorities, other state bodies,
• National Police of Ukraine,
• State Emergency Service of Ukraine,
• Judicial protection service, in courts, institutions of the justice system and pre-trial investigation bodies

At the same time, the order and organization of reservation, criteria, list of positions and professions, as well as the volumes of reservation of conscripts are also determined by this law and normative legal acts of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted for its implementation. According to these regulatory documents, it was established that the employees of the specified services are subject to general military registration, but they are subject to reservation.

On June 5, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution limiting the reservation of employees of the National Police of Ukraine and the State Emergency Service of Ukraine to 50%. However, at the moment there is no information about the specified resolution on the official portal of the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as in the legislation base on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.

Undoubtedly, the employees of these structures are the most prepared for military service, taking into account their experience in handling weapons, working in stressful situations, health and physical fitness compared to a trolleybus driver or an office manager, but they perform extremely important tasks for the country – they come to eliminate consequences of enemy strikes, evacuate the civilian population from front-line areas, eliminate the consequences of emergency situations not related to military actions, search for and detain collaborative elements and criminals. Therefore, according to the type of their activity, they must have special training.

Booking, for example, circus artists looks very strange against this background. As explained by T.V.O. of the Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostislav Karandeev, now in Ukraine the groups of state mobile circuses perform an important function in helping to balance tragic information and participate in measures to restore mental health. We do not think that these tasks are more important than those performed by police officers and rescuers. The government also tried to book employees of the IT sector and the gambling business, but this decision was canceled after widespread public outcry and indignation.

However, let’s return to the decision of the Cabinet. According to it, all conscripts who hold the positions of heads of regional, district, village and city councils and all officials of category “A” are subject to reservation. Also, only 50% of those who work in local self-government bodies are subject to reservation, but the importance of police and emergency services cannot be compared with them.

In addition, it is not known who and how will ensure the protection of law and order if 50% of the police officers are sent to the ranks of the military, and those who remained at the request of the current legislation are involved in the mobilization process and will participate in the implementation of measures to notify reservists and conscripts. bound together with representatives of the TCC and the SP, to carry out, at the request of the TCC and the SP, administrative detention and delivery to the specified centers and bodies of reservists and conscripts who have committed administrative offenses, organization of checks on male persons aged 18 to 60 years of military registration document, including at checkpoints.

Also, extremely important but unresolved issues are the mandatory dismissal of security forces before joining the ranks of the Armed Forces. Where is the guarantee that they will return to their workplaces later? How will their pension be paid in this case?

In May, a petition appeared on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers regarding the 100% reservation of personnel of the State Service of Ukraine for emergency situations for the period of mobilization and wartime. She received the necessary 25,000 votes, which indicates the great concern of the general public on this issue.

Probably, this time the outrage was heard in the society, so on June 7, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko announced on his TG channel that 90% of the employees of the State Emergency Service and the National Police of Ukraine were booked from mobilization. 10% of policemen who are subject to mobilization can join the “Rage” brigade or three additional combat brigades of the National Police of Ukraine. The minister also stated that 10% of rescuers have the choice to mobilize to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard or the State Border Service.

“Regarding the rescuers: our position is that the employees of the operational response units (firemen, sappers, rescuers, chemists, engineers, etc.) should be fully booked.” Klymenko said.

At the same time, we have not yet seen official regulatory documents that confirm the minister’s words. And if they are not, this statement remains only words.

It should be remembered that, in addition to reservations, Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine “On Mobilization Training and Mobilization” applies in full to employees of the specified services, which states that deferment from mobilization during martial law can be obtained in the following cases:

• due to the state of health (recognized in accordance with the established procedure as persons with a disability or, according to the opinion of the military medical commission, temporarily unfit for military service due to the state of health for a period of 6-12 months (with subsequent passing of the military medical commission);
• by family circumstances (women and men who are dependent on three or more children under the age of 18, women and men, guardians, custodians, adoptive parents, foster parents raising a child with a disability under the age of 18, women and men, dependent on an adult child who is a person with a disability of group I or II, and other categories).

However, in order to confirm the specified circumstances, it is necessary to submit the relevant package of documents in a timely manner according to the list, proving the circumstances that give the right to postponement.

Along with this, there is another circumstance that also caused outrage among Ukrainians. According to Cabinet Resolution No. 560, men with many children now have to legally prove that they really participate in the maintenance of children. If the children are born from two women, with whom the husband is divorced, but continues to financially support the children, it is necessary to have an agreement between the husband and his former wives that he participates in the maintenance of his minor children. This should be kept in mind by the police and emergency services.

Taking into account the importance of the tasks of each policeman and rescuer who, in particular, work in the areas closest to the line of contact with the enemy, there is hope that the issue of their booking will be reasonably resolved at least for the frontline areas. In the Kharkiv region, leaving only 50% of employees on duty will be simply a disaster, taking into account the almost daily shelling of the territory of the region by the enemy and the degree of destruction that will be caused by enemy missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.

It should also be taken into account that recently the enemy has been using a double-strike tactic, striking again at the same point, but some time after the previous one, expecting to destroy the very employees and equipment that came to help the civilian population and to eliminate the consequences of the hits. Under such conditions, there are no more people who want to work in the State Emergency Service and the police, especially in the frontline areas, given the high risks to life.

According to data from open sources, the total number of employees of the State Emergency Service is now less than 80,000. It is necessary to remember that it is not only men, but also women who are not subject to mobilization. According to official statistics, since the start of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine in 2022, 91 employees of the State Emergency Service have died, 348 rescuers have received various degrees of injury. It should be taken into account that these figures are made up of persons who are not directly on the frontline of combat operations, but work exclusively in peaceful territory, which indicates a high degree of risk in this profession and without being sent to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The same applies to police officers. According to open sources, the total number of employees of the National Police of Ukraine is about 190 thousand people, while the number of police officers is approximately 100 thousand people. According to available data, from 2022 to the middle of 2024, about seven dozen policemen died directly from hostilities, information about the wounded is not available, but how do they compare in statistics with the employees of the State Emergency Service, where the number is approximately 1 dead and 4 wounded, then we can safely say about hundreds and three wounded employees in relation to the police. Since the official data on this matter is closed and not announced anywhere, it is most likely, unfortunately, much higher.

As we can see, based on the statistics, if every second employee of the police and the State Emergency Service goes to the front, then within the territory of the whole of Ukraine there will be approximately 40,000 employees of the State Emergency Service and approximately 50,000 policemen, which, in our opinion, is catastrophically small, considering the tasks performed by the employees the specified services.

In general, at this time, mobilization issues are very acutely perceived by the general public and really need comprehensive coverage in order to exclude abuse and manipulation in this area.