Law on mobilization: what changes the government has adopted

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the second reading approved amendments to draft law No. 10449, which concern mobilization for the army and military service.

Hence have changed categories of people who are not subject to mobilization, as well as norms for the recruitment of young people, in particular students, postgraduates and university teachers.

“UP. Life” together with lawyer and candidate of legal sciences Yevhen Filipets and lawyer of MORIS law company Rostyslav Sobotnyk highlighted the main changes foreseen by the new law.

Military registration and basic training

As the experts noted, the procedure for registering for military service does not change – citizens, as before, must register when they reach the age of 17 years.

Also reduced conscription age – from 27 to 25 years old. Those who still did not reach such an age conscription for military service during general mobilization will not be subject to and can mobilize only at their own will.

Only people who have been released from captivity, with disabilities, as well as citizens under the age of 25 who have undergone basic military training can be mobilized voluntarily.

According to lawyer Yevhen Filipets, this approach will improve the solution to the problem of mobilizing boys who have become conscripts before reaching the age of 25.

“This is definitely good for the practice of protecting rights in the field of military justice,” – says the lawyer.

Basic military training is being introduced instead of conscription. It will be passed by men of age from 18 to 25 years old. Women can pass it voluntarily. It is important that you can choose the period of service independently, but it must be completed before a person turns 24 years old.

“They have the right to deferment and exemption from basic military service, under the following conditions: if they have been declared temporarily unfit for military service due to their health, they study in educational institutions until the age of 24, have chosen the year in which they will undergo basic military service.

This also applies to those who were notified of the suspicion of committing a criminal offense (prior to the adoption of a court decision) and persons who completed military service abroad before acquiring Ukrainian citizenship.” noted lawyer Yevhen Filipets.

Rostislav Sobotnyk said that basic military service in military the period will continue up to three months, of which at least one month is basic military training and up to two months is professional training. IN peacetime – up to five months, of which three months of general military training and two months of professional training.

Citizens will be directed to undergo basic military service by district state administrations in cooperation with the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support (TCC) and local self-government bodies.

In addition, starting from September 1, 2025, education seekers professional pre-university and higher educational institutions, as well as military higher educational institutions and military educational units of universities will undergo basic military training.

It will become mandatory for men, and women will be able to join at their own will.

Also conscripts aged 18 to 60 necessarily must undergo a medical examination. And those who were recognized as having limited fitness and persons who acquired a disability of the II or III group after February 24, 2022, obliged undergo a repeated military medical examination (MMC) within a year.

Mobilization of education seekers: what has changed

Students

In the previous law, it was stated that conscription for military service during mobilization not all applicants are eligible professional (vocational and technical), professional pre-higher and higher education.

However, now there is a nuance: they have to obtain a level of education that is higher than previously obtained in the sequencedefined in part two of Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine “About education”.

Simply put: if a student previously completed a bachelor’s degree and then entered college, then he subject to mobilization

In addition, if a final year student completes his studies this year, he has a deferral until June 30. To continue it, he must enroll in a master’s or postgraduate course. The form in which education is obtained is not important.

“Guarantee of non-mobilization or postponement during admission to master’s or postgraduate studies in July and August in the draft law not specified“, – noted Philipets.

Mobilization will not be subject to medical students undergoing internship.

Also recently, Govt made a decision on permission for male students to go abroad to participate in academic mobility programs. But for this they must have a number of documents.

Graduate students

In the text of the draft law on mobilization, which the Council supported in the first reading, it was indicated that post-graduate students studying under a contract will be subject to mobilization.

The community of post-graduate students of Ukraine is negative reacted on such a “division”, calling it “a step back for the education and science of Ukraine”. They emphasized that only 5-10% of post-graduate students study with state funds, and the rest are forced to get an education at their own expense.

“Such a discriminatory rule creates a difference between those who pay for education at the expense of the state and those who have to finance their education independently.” – noted in the Community.

There, they are convinced that graduate students make a great contribution to the defense of the country with their developments, because since 2022, the number of studies aimed at creating highly efficient equipment for the Armed Forces has increased significantly.

Now this changed: post-graduate students who are getting an education on a contract or budget basis, to be mobilized into the army will not be able.

Will university teachers be mobilized?

According to Yevhen Filipets and Rostislav Sobotnyk, mobilization are not subject to scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers with a scientific degree (candidate of science, doctor of philosophy, doctor of science) who work in institutions of higher and professional pre-higher education and in scientific institutions. Also teachers of institutions of vocational pre-higher education, professional and technical education.

“As for school teachers, this is possible provided that they work in the aforementioned institutions.” – added the specialist.

Deferral from mobilization is granted only to the above-mentioned educators who work in the relevant institutions or institutions not less than 0.75 rates for the main place of work.

“The TCC checks the grounds for granting a deferment to conscripts and processes it, in particular, with the help of the State Register of Conscripts. The procedure for such processing is established by the Cabinet of Ministers.” – explained Sobotnyk.

Who is entitled to reservation and postponement

Evgeny Filipets said that booking subject to conscripts who work or are serving in state authorities or local self-government bodies – deputies, their assistants (no more than two), ministers and their deputies, heads of regional, village or settlement heads, as well as judges and heads of courts and diplomats.

“Reserved are employees of critically important enterprises, institutions that provide for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other military formations or the functioning of the economy and ensure the vital activities of the population at special times, including co-owners of such enterprises who are not their employees.” – Yevhen Filipets explained.

However, according to the expert, the law gives no guarantees such workers should not be mobilized.

“In fact, the draft law did not settle one of the most common questions: how to update and obtain military registration documents at the TCC in order to have a reservation. Because the trip there often ends with mobilization.” – noted lawyer Yevhen Philipets.

Moreover, if a part of the employees is subject to reservation, then the management independently chooses who to book

The law also provides for categories of citizens who will have postponement of mobilization. We are talking about parents of three or more children who are not 18 years old, with the exception of those who do not pay alimony for more than three months, and those who raise a minor child with a disability. And also husbands whose wives have the I or II group of disability, or the III, if it is acquired as a result of certain diseases.

“This is possible only if the group is acquired as a result of an oncological disease, the absence of one or two limbs, hands, feet. And also one of the paired organs, or in the presence of oncological disease, mental disorder, cerebral palsy or other paralytic syndromes”. Yevhen Filipets emphasized.

This cohort also includes those who have one of their parents or their spouse’s parents with group I or II disabilities. This is possible under the condition, if there are no other personswho are not conscripted and legally obliged to support these people with disabilities.

If the parents have, for example, two sons who are conscripted into the military, one of them receives a deferment based on the definition of a person with a disability, but the mechanism of this definition is still unknown, Filipets explained.