Kyiv to penalize, block bank accounts of draft dodgers amid serious shortage of soldiers

05/13/2024 / By Belle Carter

Kyiv will soon block bank accounts and impose penalties on the property of those trying to avoid military service as Ukraine now faces a serious shortage of fighters to face Russia. This was according to Andrey Osadchyuk, a member of the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

The bill, which has not yet been signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelensky, includes raising fines for anyone caught trying to avoid the call-up and allowing authorities to detain draft dodgers for up to three days. This is in line with a law that introduced stricter penalties for breaching the country’s mobilization rules, which the MPs voted on last month, Osadchyuk told journalists.

According to the UNIAN news agency, under the legislation that will go into force “sometime in late May,” the fines for violations of the military registration rules for individuals have been increased to between 17,000 and 20,500 hryvnia (around $430 and $520).

Osadchyuk noted how the penalty is “a big sum for anyone in Kyiv,” adding that “for some provincial towns and villages, it is a gigantic sum.” Because of the pricey penalties, “we will, most likely, have a situation when these fines will not be paid by citizens on a mass scale, as they simply may not have the money or will just not want to do it,” he said. In case this happens, the government will remove the dodgers’ access to their bank account via enforcement procedure. The government will also impose a penalty on the property owned by those individuals.

These measures were provisions in the initial proposed mobilization legislation submitted last year to the unicameral parliament, but they were rejected because they were deemed unconstitutional. However, “a new scheme will be launched” that will allow the government to block the said accounts “through what are, in principle, absolutely legal means,” the MP said.

Ukraine’s military indeed needs more manpower to sustain a bloody war of attrition against Russia. The nation’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, admitted that training and recruiting troops has been a serious challenge. “The prolonged nature of the war, limited opportunities for the rotation of soldiers on the line of contact, gaps in legislation that seem to legally evade mobilization, significantly reduce the motivation of citizens to serve with the military,” he said last November. (Related: Ukraine RUNNING OUT of soldiers to fight Russia.)

Some reports even claimed that Ukraine may have no choice but to lower its fighting age. Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 must register at military enlistment offices and are not permitted to leave the country under martial law, but only those over the age of 27 are eligible for conscription. Last year, Ukraine’s parliament approved legislation to lower the conscription age to 25, but Zelensky did not sign it into law.

Kyiv does not publicly disclose its manpower targets nor does it reveal the total number of dead and wounded, although casualties on both sides since February 2022 are estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands.

Ukrainian lawmakers push for prisoners to enlist

Another measure the Ukrainian government thought of to resolve the fighters’ shortage issue is making convicts enlist in the army. On May 8, Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill allowing some convicts to enlist for a chance at parole. The move is only expected to generate several thousand new soldiers from a possible pool of up to 20,000 convicts, senior lawmaker David Arakhamia said.

According to another solon, Oleksiy Honcharenko, the bill, which is yet to be signed to become law by Zelensky, would not allow people convicted of the most serious crimes to enlist. People convicted of the premeditated murder of two or more people, rape, sexual violence, crimes against national security and serious corruption violations would still not be allowed to join the military.

“It’s no secret that the mobilization resource of our enemy is huge, and therefore we should use all available opportunities to fight back armed aggression,” a note attached to the bill indicated. “Some of these people are motivated and patriotic citizens who are ready to redeem themselves before society on the battlefield.”

According to the bill, the prisoners who are interested in enlisting would have to write an appeal to the head of the prison and conditional probation would be granted by a court decision. “This must happen only by the convict’s own will. Prisoners are not forced to mobilize,” Honcharenko said on X. Earlier, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska said separate units in the armed forces would be introduced for convict fighters.

Visit UkraineWitness.com for more stories related to the current situation in Ukraine.

Watch the video below where Ukrainian bloggers reveal that corpses of military-age men trying to escape Ukraine were recovered from the border.

This video is from the Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.