Bill No. 13345 on Discharge from Military Service
The Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has placed Bill No. 13345 on its agenda. This legislation, registered on June 3, 2025, and added to the session schedule on February 10, 2026, establishes a legal mechanism for service members to be discharged based on a court ruling that their mobilization was unlawful. The bill proposes adding a new subsection 'i' to Part Four of Article 26 of the Law 'On Military Duty and Military Service'. This move comes as Ukraine continues to refine its legal framework for national defense.
Purpose and Support for the Bill
The new subsection 'i' aims to provide for the discharge of service members when a court decision declaring their conscription during mobilization illegal comes into legal force. Lawyer Oleksiy Mendrukh explained the necessity on his YouTube channel, stating:
'It seems like a paradox – a person has a court ruling, but it cannot be enforced because the relevant legal provision is absent.' Oleksiy Mendrukh
The bill's authors include the Chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, Zavitnevych, as well as MPs Maslov, Zadorozhnyi, Pidlasa, Radina, and Klympush-Tsintsadze. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has expressed its support for this initiative.
However, parliamentary experts, specifically the Main Scientific and Expert Department, have raised concerns about the ambiguous phrasing 'recognition of conscription as unlawful'. They emphasized that:
'The use of undefined legal constructs in practice could lead to numerous abuses of rights, excessive burden on the judicial system, and the creation of threats to national security.'
Acknowledging the urgency of the matter amid the ongoing armed aggression against Ukraine, the bill's authors noted that 'mobilization processes are a necessary component of state defense, yet it is crucial that these processes occur strictly within the bounds of the law.' The bill is now awaiting its first reading in parliament.
The proposed legislation has the potential to significantly impact Ukraine's mobilization legal framework, especially under conditions of protracted conflict. Its adoption could protect the rights of service members who were illegally conscripted, though challenges related to its wording and potential for abuse remain open questions. Further parliamentary consideration will be a critical step toward shaping a more transparent and lawful mobilization system in Ukraine.