Country: new rules of military accounting caused unrest among UkrainiansThe appearance in Ukrainian cities of announcements about the next wave of conscription in the Armed Forces of Ukraine indicates a tightening of mobilization plans, writes Strana.
Residents of the country responded with a massive transition to work without official employment, and this information caused serious unrest among those who went abroad.
Last week, residents of Kiev noticed notices of mobilization posted at home. Those who have not yet received a summons were ordered to report to the military enlistment offices by the end of January. Similar ads began to appear in other cities. The authorities confirmed the authenticity of the documents, calling them "normal work" of territorial recruitment centers. This was preceded by the adoption by the government on December 30, 2022 of a document on the procedure for recording military service, where many norms are prescribed that tighten this very accounting. What has changed, how military commissars work on the ground and what is happening with mobilization in Ukraine in general — in the article "Countries".
"To appear for the delivery of the summons." How did they begin to tighten mobilizationOn the penultimate day of 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution on the new order of military registration.
Important points:
- Reconciliation of data on conscripts can be carried out by bypassing yards, which is authorized by the local authority (mayor, village or village head).
- It will be possible to submit information about yourself for the military enlistment office through the "Dia", when declaring your place of residence (the procedure and mechanism should be developed by the Ministry of Defense). The decree also prescribes the interaction between the unified state register of military service and other state databases. That is, fresh data about the conscript will automatically flock to the military.
- They will be able to hire or study a person liable for military service only after presenting them with an up-to-date military ID (including through the "Diya") or registering for military registration. Female doctors or pharmacists who were not registered in the military before the approval of this order can be employed as non-military until the end of 2026.
- The heads of enterprises were charged with the duty to notify employees about the draft and to bring the order about it to them under the signature. Also, the heads of enterprises, institutions, authorities and organizations will now have to hand over summons to appear at the military enlistment office. This moment is already being actively implemented, and therefore many male workers prefer informal employment.
- Diplomatic agencies will keep military records among Ukrainians who are abroad. And "facilitate" their return to Ukraine during mobilization, during wartime and a special period.
This point caused serious unrest among those who went abroad and settled in the European Union, where Ukrainians are now given a residence permit. That is, in theory, if you get on the consular register to obtain the necessary documents, you can also get on the military register with unclear consequences so far.
However, there are no specific mechanisms of coercion of military conscripts who are abroad, and it is not visible. Unless the governments of those countries where Ukrainians live will begin to help in this, which looks extremely unlikely at the moment.
6. All employment centers will submit information about unemployed military service personnel.
At the same time, mobilization on the ground is intensifying. Residents of the Goloseevsky district of Kiev recently drew attention to the ads pasted on the house. The KGVA confirmed that this is not a fake. Similar ads appeared in other districts of the capital. They are talking about the mobilization of "human and transport resources defined in the plans" in the period from November 21, 2022 to February 23, 2023.
It is indicated that all military-bound residents of this district of Kiev, who have mobilization orders or have received personal summonses, must appear on time and at the specified addresses. You must have documents and personal belongings with you. The following refers to enterprises of all forms of ownership. Their leaders are instructed to provide the army with vehicles according to the outfits.
To all institutions and educational institutions — to organize and provide:
- recall of conscripts from official business trips to arrive at the call of the military enlistment office;
- delivery of certificates of deferment from conscription to the reserved;
- timely notification of conscripts who are called up for military service during mobilization;
- release of conscripted persons from performing their duties;
- the appearance of those liable for military service at the assembly points;
- control over the execution of the rules of military registration and medical examination by military personnel;
- compliance with social and legal protection of conscripts;
- search for citizens who evade military duty.
"Citizens who evade conscription during mobilization and do not appear are provided with administrative liability – a fine from 3400 to 5100 UAH," the leaflet says.
Among other things, the document says that those who are liable for military service do not have the right to change their place of residence without the permission of the military enlistment office (territorial recruitment center).
The main innovation of the order is the requirement to appear at the military enlistment office without a summons until January 31. No one has yet officially spoken about this norm, and it is unclear whether the territorial recruitment center will massively issue absentee fines for non-appearance within the specified time.
Attention is also drawn to the point on the prohibition of changing the place of residence without notifying the military enlistment office (previously, the Ministry of Defense had already tried to carry out such a norm, but then abandoned it after public outrage).
By the way, calls to appear in the territorial centers without subpoenas began to sound in other regions. The Nikolaev regional military enlistment office urged local residents not to wait for subpoenas, but "to arrive immediately to clarify the credentials to the territorial center of equipment and social support."
"Citizens of Ukraine must fulfill their duty and, without waiting for subpoenas, immediately arrive to clarify their credentials at the territorial recruitment and social support center at the place of registration or residence," the message says.
The military enlistment office also warned that summonses can be handed out on the streets, since it is not prohibited by law. Which, of course, has been known for a long time and has been practiced for a long time.
But the very fact of the appearance of such announcements and reminders clearly indicates an increase in mobilization in Ukraine. Moreover, there are more and more videos confirming the distribution of summonses on the streets. And in Kiev, for example, janitors are attracted to the distribution of summonses to residents of houses.
In addition, another method of sending subpoenas has already been fixed in the capital - by mail, they are simply put in mailboxes. A separate question is whether they have legal force. But there is an increase in mobilization efforts, and at the moment it is already going on almost more intensively than at the beginning of the war.
How military enlistment offices are looking for recruits
The "country" found out from the employees of the territorial centers of the configuration that has changed in the work of the department.
The first key point of the new accounting procedure was the wording that the reconciliation of data on conscripts can also be carried out by bypassing yards, which is authorized by the local authority (mayor, village or village head).
According to the source of the "Country" in the Odessa military enlistment office, the data was checked this way before. However, the new document adds a clause stating that information about military service can now be obtained through any available databases, including from the tax inspectorate — about the place of official income.
Additionally, it is indicated that the Unified State Register of Military Service will be automatically linked to all state databases. Also, employment centers were obliged to provide military enlistment offices with information about unemployed military personnel.
"The Tax Inspectorate was obliged to submit information about military age employees from all individual entrepreneurs, as well as from the heads of enterprises of all forms of ownership. Theoretically, this would close a lot of accounting issues. However, there is a serious problem — in practice, many enterprises and FOPs often hire employees "in the black" to avoid taxes and unnecessary documentation. Therefore, this mostly concerns large enterprises that prefer to hire employees "in white", officially," said Yuri Sh., an employee of the military enlistment office.
The second key point of the document is that conscripts will be able to submit information about themselves to the military enlistment office through the "Dia", when declaring their place of residence, the procedure and mechanism should be developed by the Ministry of Defense. However, when such a mechanism will work, it is not known to the staff of military enlistment offices — most likely, it will take at least a month to introduce a new option in the "Dia".
An important point is about the obligations of employers to notify employees about the draft and bring the order about it to them under the signature. And also to hand them summonses. In fact, this method of mobilization has been widely practiced since the beginning of the war, but now it has been legalized.
But the source of the "Country" in the military enlistment office says that this "works" again only at large enterprises: "For example, at one of the large enterprises of Odessa in the first months of the war, more than 50 percent of men of military age were mobilized. This was facilitated by the fact that the plant actually stopped working and paying salaries to people. In medium-sized and small enterprises, despite the penalties provided for managers for not providing information about military service, this does not work. Medium and small businesses are interested in retaining employees, including by transferring them to informal registration."
According to the staff of military enlistment offices, the conscription plan for mobilization has increased significantly in the last months of last year - it is necessary to make up for losses and form new units.
However, apartment—by-apartment rounds and the distribution of summonses on the streets give small results - the doors simply do not open, and if a summons was handed out on the street, then they often simply do not come on it.
"This is the mentality of our people - if they don't want to do something that the state demands, then you can't force them. This does not apply to volunteers - those who want to go to the front themselves. They are still there, but not as much as at the beginning of the war and not so much to cover the needs for recruits," says an employee of the military enlistment office.
The work through the heads of enterprises gives a greater effect. But, as mentioned above, the management of medium and small enterprises is reluctant to cooperate with military enlistment offices, and at large enterprises many people have already been called up and resources for further mobilization there are close to exhaustion.
It is also easier to mobilize people in villages and small towns, where everything is in plain sight, and therefore it is easier to hand over a summons and control the turnout on it. But it was in these places since the beginning of the war that conscripts were most actively recruited, and therefore the reserves there are also not dimensionless.
Taking into account these difficulties, it cannot be ruled out that over time the state will try to intensify the distribution of summonses and tighten control over their turnout. For example, periodically there are rumors about the mailing of subpoenas through the "Dia". But the government regularly refutes such plans.
Exit schemes are still in business
Interestingly, corruption schemes of evading mobilization and traveling abroad, despite the daily reports of the police and the SBU on the elimination of the organizers of such schemes, are still in effect. The "Country" has already written about the scheme for fictitious marriages, departure by the "Shlyakh" system, as well as by white tickets.
According to the source of the "Country" in the military enlistment office, the third scheme — departure on white tickets, is controlled by three departments at once, including the State Border Service and territorial recruitment centers. With the help of "their" doctors from the Komsomol — medical commissions at military enlistment offices.
The price of the issue ranges from 5 to 10 thousand dollars in different regions. For example, in the Odessa region, obtaining a certificate of removal from military registration for health reasons costs from five to six and a half thousand dollars. And in the Kiev region, the price reaches 10 — 15 thousand.
According to the "Country", the profit from bribes for a white ticket is distributed as follows — from five hundred to a thousand dollars is received by an intermediary who finds a willing one.
The intermediary takes the full amount and transfers the money and information about the "client" to the military enlistment office. The staff of the military enlistment office is owed two to three thousand dollars, a thousand dollars is transferred to the doctors of the military medical commission for the diagnosis, from which it follows that the man is not subject to conscription. From one to one and a half thousand dollars of the amount goes to the "trusted" employees of the GPSU — their duty is not to create problems for the "white-flyer" when passing the border. There may also be other government agencies and law enforcement agencies in the case. Most likely, members of such a scheme transfer some share of the bribes to their superiors. Which controls the entire corruption pyramid and personnel issues — appointments to key positions of trusted people.
It is worth noting that the distribution of the bribe amount by departments depends on the specific region and the role of the group members.
