Rada in first reading supports law that restores criminal liability for unauthorized abandonment of military unit or place of service

The Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading a bill on liability for unauthorized abandonment a military unit or place of service. This was reported by MP Oleksandr Fedienko in Telegram.

It is reported that the bill No. 13260 was supported by 277 MPs.

"In fact, criminal liability for unauthorized abandonment a military unit is restored. That is, if it is adopted in general, the court will not be able to apply a mitigating factor," the MP writes.

It is noted that servicemen who leave a unit without permission may again face imprisonment from 5 to 10 years.

Thus, the bill proposes:

- to exclude Part 5 of Article 401 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which stipulates that a person who, during martial law, committed a criminal offense "Unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service" (Article 407) or "Desertion" (Article 408) may be exempted from criminal liability if he voluntarily applied to the investigator, prosecutor, or court with a petition of intention to return;

- to supplement Section 2 of the Final and Transitional Provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with a new paragraph 24, which provides for separate grounds for exemption from criminal liability of persons who, during martial law, first committed criminal offenses provided for in Articles 407 and 408 of this Code and want to return to military service or have already returned to military service and are serving it;

- to Article 286 "Procedure for exemption from criminal liability", Article 287 "Prosecutor's petition for exemption from criminal liability", "Consideration of the issue of exemption from criminal liability" of the Criminal Procedure Code and to supplement Section XI "Transitional Provisions" of the Criminal Procedure Code with a new clause 20-10, which regulates the conditions and procedure for exemption of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from criminal liability if there are grounds.

We remind you that since November 2024, 29,000 servicemen have returned to the army after the unauthorized abandonment of military unit.

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