At the info session “The Role of the Local Self-Government in the Draft and Military Record-Keeping Processes”, Tetiana Filatova and Andrii Dyshliuk, advisers at U-LEAD, first outlined the obligations of the local self-government regarding the implementation of draft measures and keeping military records.
Draft notices, certificates and other documents: who is in charge of them in the local self-government and on what grounds
A key responsibility of local self-government regarding the draft is to ensure the notification and conscription processes. This duty is entrusted to the local self-government in accordance with the Procedure for Conscripting Citizens for Military Service during Draft under Martial Law approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 560 dated 16 May 2024.
Ensuring the notification and conscription in terms of the powers of executive bodies of village, settlement and city councils involves the following:
- Receiving an order to conduct draft activities or call reservists;
- Issuance of a notification certificate;
- Informing companies and institutions, as well as the general public, of the order to conduct draft activities or call reservists;
- Notification of reservists and persons liable to conscription at their place of residence or their declared/registered place of residence by handing out draft notices against acknowledgement;
- Informing of notification results and refusal to receive draft notices, informing about arriving IDPs;
- Ensuring the arrival of reservists and persons liable to conscription by transporting them from notification places to assembly points.
Tetiana Filatova, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Luhansk Oblast and moderator of the info session, emphasised that the officials of the executive bodies of the local self-government could be included in the notifying teams by order of the district, city or regional state administrations and on the basis of the executive order act of the executive committee of the local council. However, when implementing notification measures, the local self-government officials must be accompanied by a police officer. Furthermore, Resolution of the CMU No. 560 dated 16 May 2024 clearly establishes who is authorised to serve draft notices and when:
“Draft notices are served by an authorised person, including from the notification team; by a representative of the Territorial Recruitment Centre if they are available. Otherwise, the person authorised to serve summons must be appointed by order of the head and have an appropriate certificate. Draft notices are served around the clock at the place of residence/registration within the municipality.”
The above Resolution of the CMU No. 560 dated 16 May 2024 also sets forth the primary model documents, namely a draft notice, a statement of refusal, a caregiver certificate, etc. In particular, a commission is created to establish the caregiver status by the head of the executive body of the local self-government.
According to the experts, a draft unit is being formed to exercise the powers of the local self-government in the field of draft and defence effort. And if before the full-scale invasion, these functions were often entrusted to other units as additional, today these structural units should be created as standalone ones. When forming them and outlining the scope of their functions, rights and duties, local self-government bodies should adhere to the Standard Regulation on the Draft Unit of a State Agency or Another State Body, approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 587 dated 27 April 2006.
Keeping military records and liability of local self-government bodies
Another important direction for the local self-government, which is currently raising a lot of questions, is keeping military records. In accordance with Article 33 of the Law of Ukraine “On Military Duty and Military Service”, local self-government bodies together with other state bodies ensure the functioning of the military records system.
According to the speaker of the info session, Andrii Dyshliuk, Adviser on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1487 dated 30 December 2022 sets forth the scope of duties of the local self-government regarding military records. It includes the management by executive bodies of village, settlement and city councils of personal and primary records of conscripts, persons liable to conscription and reservists.
Pursuant to this Resolution, the executive bodies of village, settlement, and city councils ensure the following:
- Keeping personal and primary records unless there is a Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre;
- Personal primary military registration of citizens who have arrived at a new place of residence;
- Personal primary military de-registration of citizens in case of their discharge;
- Identification of persons who reside locally but have not been subject to personal primary military registration;
- Reconciliation of the registration data of the primary registration military cards of conscripts at least once a year.
However, senior and other officials of local self-government bodies are held liable for violating the rules of military record keeping and organisation of conscription of reservists under martial law as per Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Military Duty and Military Service”. The sanctions are provided for by Article 210-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences. These are fines for violating the rules of military record keeping and defence, military duty and military service, draft training and draft laws.
- In peacetime: UAH 17,000 to UAH 25,500; UAH 25,500 to UAH 34,000 for repeated offences;
- Under martial law: UAH 34,000 to UAH 59,500.
Andrii Dyshliuk also spoke about the procedure for updating the information on persons liable to conscription and showed this process step by step to the employees of Administrative Service Centres who update this information via the DIIA Portal.