For the first time in Ukraine: court allows a serviceman to return to service after unauthorised abandonment of his unit
In the Dnipropetrovsk Region, the Novomoskovsk City District Court made an unprecedented decision not to imprison a serviceman who voluntarily left his unit without an order in December 2023. The serviceman will have the opportunity to continue his service, but already in another military unit, which was approved by the commander of the new unit. About this reported State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).
This is the first time a serviceman has avoided imprisonment for voluntarily leaving the unit thanks to a request for extension of service, which the court granted.
The SBI also noted that Ukrainian courts have already acquitted three more military personnel who left their units in 2022-2024.
Such measures became possible thanks to Law No. 11322, which provides for exemption from criminal liability for desertion or voluntary abandonment of a unit (SZCH), if it happened for the first time, and on the condition that military personnel voluntarily return to service.
