Ukraine's parliament approves law to enlist prisoners for military service

On Wednesday, the Supreme Council, Ukraine's parliament, adopted a law allowing the release of certain categories of prisoners so they could enter military service on a contract basis during mobilization and a state of war.

The right to be released from serving a sentence to join the army will not apply to those convicted of intentional murder, pedophilia, corruption, and crimes against state security, as explained by the Ukrainska Pravda portal.

This will also not apply to convicts who held high state positions before their sentences, including ministers and deputies, and those convicted of manufacturing, distributing, or possessing drugs.

As explained by Olena Shulak, a deputy of the ruling Servant of the People party, those released from prison to perform military service can be those who have no more than three years left until the end of their sentence. Prisoners with longer sentences and those sentenced to life imprisonment will be denied without the right to appeal, she emphasized in a comment for Ukrainska Pravda.

The portal noted that if a person released from serving a sentence to perform military service commits a new crime during their time in the military, their subsequent sentence will be extended by the time spent under this conditional release in the army.

The court will decide whether to early release convicts to military service after consulting with a medical commission, recruitment command, and the unit in which they will serve.

Shulak claims that former prisoners, now as soldiers, will serve exclusively in special military units, the creation of which is designated by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The unit commander will have administrative control over such individuals.

In April, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new law on mobilization, which introduced several changes in the current military recruitment system. These include expanding the authorities' powers to issue military summons electronically. At the time, it was explained that the law would help the authorities identify the personnel resources available to Ukraine.