On 04/16/2024, the President of Ukraine signed the Law of Ukraine dated 04/11/2024 No. 3633-IX "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Certain Issues of Military Service, Mobilization and Military Registration".
Business was not spared the updated mobilization rules. We will consider what is new in the mobilization law and whether such changes will significantly affect enterprises in more detail in this article.
- Duties of enterprises regarding mobilization training and mobilization
With the entry into force of the new Law, companies will be responsible not only for the timely arrival of employees to military units, TCC assembly points, but also for timely notification.
Fulfillment of this duty will be done with the help of information and organizational and technical measures companies, the costs of which the company will be able to compensate at the expense of the State Budget of Ukraine.
What exactly these measures will consist of and how companies will have to notify their employees and their arrival is currently an open question.
According to the new law, the procedure for timely notification and arrival of conscripts will be determined, in particular, in the procedure for conscripting citizens for military service during mobilization for a special period. The specified procedure should be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the near future.
- Reservation of conscripts
Article 25 of the Law of Ukraine "On Mobilization Training and Mobilization" is also expected to undergo certain changes.
The lawmaker removed as a separate item item 3 of article 25 - reservation of employees at enterprises that produce goods, perform work and provide services necessary to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations.
At the same time, according to the new wording of Clause 4 of Article 25 of the Law, employees at enterprises that are critically important for meeting the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other military formations or the functioning of the economy and ensuring the livelihood of the population in a special period.
With the entry into force of the new Law, enterprises recognized as critically important will additionally be able to book not only employees, but also ultimate beneficial owners who are not employees of the company.
Importantly! From now on, the company will additionally process the postponement of reserved employees at its own location - in the district (city) TCC, on the territory of which the company is located.
Therefore, employees booked by the enterprise will be able to receive a postponement of the draft only if they are placed on special military accounting.
The criteria and procedure for determining critical enterprises, as well as the procedure for booking conscripts, currently remain unchanged. However, it is possible that the resolutions of the CMU will still be reviewed.
The updated law gives the CMU 3 months (almost until the end of July 2024) to revise the procedure for booking conscripts taking into account the requirements of this law and to adopt the relevant normative legal acts.
- Military transport duty
With the entry into force of the new Law, enterprises will not be able to fully dispose of their own vehicles, which are intended for the resupply of the Armed Forces, other military formations in a special period and are on military registration in the TCC.
Companies, in particular, will be prohibited from:
- travel abroad and to other regions on such a vehicle;
- sell, donate, lease (leasing) TK to legal entities or citizens;
- to provide TK as collateral for the fulfillment of obligations under credit agreements before a banking institution.
New restrictions do not concern those vehicles that were leased (leased) or provided as collateral before the date of publication of the new law - until 04/17/2024.
Importantly! Departure to other regions for a vehicle registered in the military register is possible only if the enterprise informs the TCC about the location of such vehicle. The period of departure is no more than one month.
Regarding the obligation of the company in the event of mobilization to deliver vehicles to collection points of TCC. Previously, this duty was performed in accordance with mobilization tasks (orders).
According to the updated rules, the delivery of motor vehicles by enterprises to assembly points in the event of mobilization will be carried out on the basis of information received from the head of the local state administration partial outfits. These are new administrative documents that will set the tasks for the heads of enterprises to transfer specified TK to other military formations and the terms of their transfer.
- Liability for violation of the mobilization law
As before, the manager and (or) officials of the enterprise, who are guilty of violating the rules of military registration, military registration, mobilization preparation and mobilization readiness, arriving on call to the TCC, are liable in accordance with the law.
Despite the adopted changes, fines for violations by enterprises of the legislation on defense, mobilization training and mobilization (Article 210-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) have not changed and currently remain at the level of UAH 5,100 to UAH 8,500.
Nevertheless, in Ukraine it is planned to strengthen the responsibility under Article 210-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
On April 10, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada supported in the first reading bill No. 10379 dated December 25, 2023, according to which the updated fines in the special period will be many times more significant for business - from UAH 153,000 to UAH 204,000.
The new mobilization law will come into effect on May 18, 2024, with the exception of the provisions on military transport duty. These changes will enter into force only after 8 months - 18.12.2024.
As you can see, the new law No. 3633-IX made a lot of corrections to the already rather complicated procedure of mobilization preparation and mobilization. Therefore, if you have any questions about the updated rules, please contact our law firm for a thorough consultation.
