The Verkhovna Rada supported the draft law on the voluntary return to service of those who went AWOL for the first time or deserted

The Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole No. 12095 on voluntary return to service for those who went AWOL (left the military unit without permission) or deserted for the first time.

MP from "Voice" Yaroslav Zheleznyak writes about this.

The document was supported by 253 MPs.

It allows to continue military service to those servicemen who first left a military unit without permission or places of service or deserted, but then voluntarily arrived at the place of service and expressed their willingness to continue military service.

Salary payments, benefits and social guarantees, as well as the provision of all other types of security, are renewed for such soldiers.

The document also stipulates that criminal proceedings initiated under Articles 407 and 408 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine against such servicemen are not grounds for refusal of continued military service.

• In Ukraine, in 2023, 17 658 cases of AWOL and 7 883 cases of desertion were registered. For the incomplete year 2024 (from January to September), there were 35 307 and 18 196, respectively.
• In August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada passed Law No. 11322, which decriminalizes desertion and leaving the military units without permission(AWOL), if it happened for the first time. And already in October, courts in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Trascarpathian, and Ternopil regions issued almost a hundred decisions not to imprison military personnel, but to allow them to return to service.

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