The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted in the second reading the draft law No. 10379 on strengthening responsibility for military offenses. Which, in particular, increases fines several times for evaders with the prospect of blocking accounts in case of non-payment.

MPs adopted the draft law with a total of 256 votes in favor. No one voted against it, and 4 abstained.

The document will work in conjunction with the recently adopted law on strengthening mobilization. The new draft law defines how and how much conscripts will pay for violating the rules of military registration in wartime (“special period”). 

People will be fined if they fail to update their data at the Military Commissariat (the deadline is July 18, 2024), fail to notify the TCC of changes in data that are not in the electronic registers, fail to appear on a summons, or otherwise violate the “mobilization” rules. 

Fines for this start at 17 thousand hryvnias. The upper limit for conscripts is UAH 25,500 (it was increased for the second reading). For officials and legal entities, the fine is from UAH 34,000 to 59,500. The administrative fine is imposed within a year, but no later than three months from the date of discovery of the offense.

The fine will not be imposed if the TCC can obtain this information about the recruit through state registers.

The main innovation of the draft law is that fines will be issued in absentia (as is the case with fines for speeding through auto-fixation cameras). That is, without the presence of the violator and drawing up a protocol.

But for this, the TCC needs to have documents confirming that the person received a summons from the military commissariat and ignored it. The draft law does not specify what kind of documents these are.

“Sudovo-yuridichna gazeta” (The Judicial and Legal Newspaper) assumes, that it will be enough to put a note in the mail message about the impossibility of delivering the summons or demand to the registered address.

According to Andriy Osadchuk, a member of the Rada's Law Enforcement Committee, fines in absentia make it possible to open enforcement proceedings and, accordingly, automatically write off the amount of fines from the offender's accounts.