Currently, a lot has been written about the mobilization processes, which have been going on in the country for the third year in a row. And if since the beginning of hostilities, a large number of citizens voluntarily joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, now the situation has changed somewhat. It was these circumstances that forced the state in the spring of 2024 to adopt a series of laws and by-laws that regulated the mobilization process in more detail, introduced additional sanctions somewhere, and somewhere, on the contrary, resorted to encouragement.
As for the mobilization sanctions, here the information was analyzed to the bones and only a lazy person did not write about it. In turn, there is much less information about what kind of incentives and in what case a person who goes to fight receives. “FAKT” IA asked the legal side of this issue to comment on the experts of the “Repeshko and Partners” Bar Association.
Among the most well-known and positive in this sense, we can name the following points. Of course, you can wait until the person is forcibly delivered to the TCC and SP and immediately sent to work. But the option of signing a contract is more attractive, and this is what the professional military themselves are talking about. There are several ways to do this:
- Contact the Territorial Center for Equipment and Social Support. This option is suitable for those who know what they would like to serve, but do not know where. That is, there is no goal to join a specific unit. At the same time, it is the TCC and JV that will determine where exactly the distribution will take place, taking into account the candidate’s skills and specialty. But an option is not excluded, in which, in the event of a shortage of certain specialists in the ranks of the Armed Forces, the person will be sent for retraining and only then distributed according to the needs of the army. Although there are recruiting centers in some TCCs and joint ventures, which are engaged in selecting the place of service, unfortunately, this has not yet become a mass phenomenon.
- Contact a specific department directly. Now there are even many advertisements, according to which well-known units invite you to serve in their ranks, guaranteeing training for a certain period. Usually in the advertising texts themselves there is contact information for applying, but as a rule, such units have their pages in social networks, websites and even recruiting centers in large cities, where it is possible to apply.
- Find a vacancy on the job search platform. This rather unexpected option has become quite widespread and currently vacancies for a specific specialty in a specific military unit can be found on such platforms as Work.ua, Olx Робота, and others. Even the Unified state portal of vacancies from the employment service of Ukraine did not bypass this option of searching for a place of service. At the same time, the options for positions on these services are very different – there is a lot to choose from.
One of the options for encouraging military service is payments from local authorities, but at the state level this means is not provided for in any way. This type of incentive is an exclusively independent voluntary decision of each local council. There are no criteria in this case, and therefore local deputies make this decision based on the financial capabilities of the community, the level of patriotism, the number of people in the community who can be mobilized, and others. Usually these payments are one-time, but some communities develop programs to support military families on an ongoing basis.
Currently, the city of Lviv offers the largest amount of payment – UAH 50,000, but only for a voluntary contract with military units of the Airborne Assault Forces and Marines. In Kyiv, all those mobilized from December 1, 2023 will receive 30,000 hryvnias from the city budget – both contract workers and those who were mobilized in general. At the same time, a mechanism has been developed and operates in the capital, according to which these payments are automatically credited to the serviceman’s account after he is enrolled in the military unit. Also, funds are automatically paid to the mobilized in Odesa and amount to UAH 20,000, while they are also received by both mobilized and contract workers. Poltava allocated 10,000 hryvnias for this event, and Chernihiv 15,000 hryvnias. Competition for big cities was unexpectedly made by small communities. So, the Bogodukhiv community of the Kharkiv region pays 50,000 hryvnias, both to local residents and to those who, having registered in the community as IDPs, decided to go and defend the country. The same amount of payments is provided for in two communities of Poltava region – Sergiyivska Gadyatsky District and Senchanska Myrhorod District.
This is not a complete list of cities and communities that support their residents in their efforts to protect their own land, but such payments have not become a widespread phenomenon.
The next step of support and encouragement was taken by the state itself, adopting the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Certain Issues of Military Service, Mobilization, and Military Registration,” which amended the Law of Ukraine “On Social and Legal Protection of Servicemen and Their Members” families”. With these changes, the state motivates the material component to enter the path of a military serviceman on a contractual basis, which, accordingly, should motivate even more to destroy the enemy. The incentive applies to such goods as housing and a car.
So, currently, it is provided that, in the case of concluding a contract, military personnel have the right within three months from the date of concluding such a contract to receive a certificate for the purchase of a vehicle in the amount of 150,000 hryvnias in accordance with the procedure established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. A certificate for the purchase of a vehicle is issued to a serviceman upon conclusion of a contract only once.
In addition, in the case of concluding the first contract, military personnel have the right to compensation of 50 percent of the first installment for a loan secured by a mortgage in accordance with the Terms of providing affordable mortgage lending to citizens of Ukraine by the private joint-stock company “Ukrainian Financial Housing Company”, and an additional 100,000 hryvnias after the first year military service, and another 100 thousand hryvnias after the second. Compensation is provided to a serviceman only once during the entire period of his military service. The procedure and conditions for providing such compensation to military personnel are determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
In addition to the material, the state tries to influence with non-material levers. Yes, the mentioned changes in the legislation settled the issue of military servicemen’s vacations. Military personnel, except for military personnel undergoing basic military service, are granted annual basic leave with preservation of monetary and material support and provision of monetary assistance for rehabilitation in the amount of monthly monetary support. The duration of the annual basic leave for military personnel with up to 10 calendar years of service is 30 calendar days; from 10 to 15 years – 35 calendar days; from 15 to 20 years – 40 calendar days; more than 20 calendar years – 45 calendar days, not including the time required for travel within Ukraine to the place of vacation and back, but no more than two days one way. Holidays and non-working days are not taken into account when determining the duration of the annual main vacations.
Military personnel, except for those undergoing basic military service, are granted additional leave in connection with training, creative leave and social leave in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Leave”. Other additional vacations are granted to them on the grounds and in the manner determined by the relevant laws of Ukraine.
The next “top” concerns the encouragement to turn out in TCC and SP. On May 16, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted and published the resolution “Procedure for conscription of citizens for military service during mobilization.” The specified resolution prohibits the TCC and SP from sending persons who voluntarily appeared to the TCC and SP to the military medical commission immediately after such an appearance to clarify their data. A separate summons must be sent to such persons to pass the medical commission. Those who were brought to the TCC and SP by force can immediately be sent to the VLK, and immediately after the VLK, be served with a summons for mobilization, for evasion of which criminal liability already arises. Thus, the reprieve that a person can receive will be one or two months, which is enough time to put things in order before being sent to the ranks of the Armed Forces.
Another relaxation applies to persons who previously had the status of “limited suitability”. We will remind that people are currently divided into the following categories depending on their state of health:
- suitable for service;
- suitable for service in military support units, TCC and SP, universities, educational centers, institutions, medical units, units of logistics, communication, operational support, security;
- unfit for military service with exclusion from military registration;
- temporarily unfit – require treatment, leave, release from duties, temporarily unfit, with review after 6-12 months.
At the same time, the status of a conscript will depend on the extent to which the disease impairs the function of one or another organ, since a person with the same disease can be both fit for military service and not fit at all.
Therefore, at the moment, all men aged 18 to 60 who previously had the status of “limited fitness” must re-pass the VLK by February 4, 2025. Thus, these persons have almost nine months to determine their status in relation to changes in the current legislation. But it is necessary to remind that according to the current law, a person has two months to update the mobilization data in the relevant registers. In any case, we recommend not to delay the passage of the VLK until the last moment, as they say. There is currently an administrative fine in the amount of 17 to 25,000 hryvnias for evasion of the VLK.
If a person is recognized as “unfit for military service” based on the results of the VLK, then he is excluded from military registration and in the future he is not conscripted. During the period of martial law, conscripts are required to re-pass the VLK after one year, and during peacetime – after five years.
Those who have been defending our country for several years have not missed positive changes. Also, according to the spring amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Military Obligation and Military Service”, servicemen who are conscripted during mobilization for a special period, military service by conscription of reservists during a special period, are released from military service on the following grounds during martial law – in the presence of disability, if the serviceman has not expressed a desire to continue military service. As you can see, persons of all three groups of disabilities are covered. However, discharge from military service does not mean that a person ceases to be a military service member.
Dismissal of servicemen from military service is carried out:
- a) in the reserve, if the servicemen have not reached the maximum age of being in the reserve and are fit for military service in terms of their health or, during the period of martial law, are recognized by military medical commissions as temporarily unfit for military service in terms of their health, with a review after 6- 12 months;
- b) to retire, if military personnel have reached the maximum age of being in the reserve or are recognized by military medical commissions as unfit for military service due to their health.
If a serviceman has a disability, a report about this must be submitted to the commander, since there is no automatic dismissal.
Unfortunately, as we can see, there are not many encouraged measures in the mobilization legislation, but there are tendencies towards their expansion. We hope that in the future the list will be expanded and supplemented with new incentives and benefits for both contract workers and mobilized.
