Zelensky signed the law on the renewal of payments and security for military personnel who returned after the first AWOLs

The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed Law No. 12095 on the renewal of payments and support to military personnel who voluntarily returned after the first AWOLs or desertion.

This is stated in the card of the draft law.

According to the law, military personnel who voluntarily left a military unit or a place of service or deserted for the first time, but then voluntarily arrived at the place of service and expressed their willingness to continue it, have their salaries, benefits and social guarantees restored, as well as the provision of all other types of security.

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 refusing continued military service.

• In August 2024, the Verkhovna Rada passed Law No. 11322, which decriminalizes first-time desertion and desertion. And already in October, courts in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn, Transcarpathia, and Ternopil regions issued almost a hundred decisions not to imprison military personnel, but to allow them to return to service.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.