The Ukrainian parliament will not consider the government-proposed draft law on mobilization and military service in its original form, Yevheniia Kravchuk, a lawmaker and a deputy head of the parliament's committee on humanitarian and information policy, said on Jan. 2.
The parliament's committee on security and defense issues will work this week on "a more accommodating option, which would allow it to be voted on in the session hall," Kravchuk said on national television.
The draft law submitted to the parliament on Dec. 25 proposes, among other things, to restrict the rights of those who evade military registration and service. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, has said that such restrictions would contradict Ukraine's Constitution.
The proposed restrictions would include a ban on traveling abroad and making transactions with movable and immovable property, limited rights to drive a vehicle, obtain a driver's license, and dispose of funds and other valuables, a refusal of credit and loan agreements, as well as suspension of benefits and services from the state.
"This is a direct provision of the Constitution: a person cannot be limited in his rights. If a person officially owns, for example, a house, we cannot legally prohibit them from selling this house or buying another. This will directly contradict the Constitution of Ukraine," Lubinets said on national TV on Dec. 27, as cited by the Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.
"Yes, there is a norm that allows to limit people's rights under martial law, but these rights cannot be limited indefinitely."
Later, Lubinets said he met with the Defense Ministry's leadership to discuss the bill, and a compromise was found "so that people's rights are protected, but this will not prevent the survival of our state." He didn't provide any further details.
During an interview with Suspilne on Dec. 24, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said he expected a bill on the mobilization of conscripts to be registered in parliament.
The bill would change the mobilization approaches in Ukraine to ensure that society does not see conscription as "punishment" and would address joining the military to serve the country, training conscripts, rotation, and finishing military service, he added.
