Updated conscription bill may be discussed in Verkhovna Rada this week
The Verkhovna Rada may consider an updated conscription bill in the first reading this week, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko said, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Feb. 5.
"Now we are waiting for the committee's decision,” Korniyenko said.
“We cannot say the exact date.”
He added that the bill was proposed for this week’s agenda.
“It is clear that we do not announce the date of meetings, but those who read the Constitution can guess when the next meeting will be,” he said.
“I think that this week it is highly likely that the parliament will consider this bill in the first reading, as well as all the alternative ones that will be submitted.”
Korniyenko also noted that the relevant committee plans to propose shortening the timeframe for consideration of amendments to the bill. But, he said, "this decision is up to the parliament."
Reports suggest that the updated version of the bill still contains some controversial items, including electronic portals for concripts. It is expected that many amendments will be proposed for the second reading.
On Jan. 30, the government registered a new version of the bill in the Verkhovna Rada. It proposes, among other things, to introduce summonses through the conscript's electronic office. Other innovations include lowering the conscription age to 25, setting the demobilization period at 36 months, introducing voluntary mobilization for convicts, restrictions on evaders, banning civil service without military training, and more.
The bill was presented in the Verkhovna Rada by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
On Jan. 31, Deputy Chairman of the Rada Defense Committee Yehor Cherniev said that they still had questions about the mobilization bill, but that the second version, according to him, was more workable.
On Feb. 1, Ilarion Pavliuk, head of the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, says that the electronic conscript's office, which is to be introduced in the new draft law, will greatly simplify the process and avoid mistakes in drafting people who are not subject to mobilization.
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