Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In Ukraine, a full package of proposals from the Office of the Military Ombudsman regarding a major revision of the grounds for postponing conscription and discharge from service has been released. The initiative proposes to substantially change the rules for guardians, people who care for relatives with disabilities, and applicants for higher education.
Main proposals of the bill regarding changes to the postponement rules
The public organization Ukrainian Center for Human Rights Protection received copies of the documents in response to an official information request. The package contains the bill itself, a comparative table, an explanatory note, and a covering letter that was sent to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in September 15 2026. This was reported by Lyudmila Denisova, the chair of the board of the association and former ombudsperson.
Publishing the documents sparked wide interest, because the initial version of the draft contained far broader restrictions than had previously been discussed. Although recently the Office of the Military Ombudsman, after consultations with parent communities, stated that it would review its approach to parents of children with disabilities, the other points remain an open question.
The documents propose additional requirements regarding permanent care, the presence of other family members, and circumstances on which the right to postponement depends,
— summed up Denisova.
Officially, the Office of the Military Ombudsman states that the aim of the bill is to protect the rights of servicemen and to provide them with broader opportunities to discharge from service for family circumstances. But in fact, it turns out that expanding guarantees for military personnel may narrow the existing guarantees for other families.
Important! The bill has only been forwarded for consideration to the relevant committee. The Office of the Military Ombudsman cannot independently initiate changes, but performs an advisory and consultative function.
Fuel
Average prices at Amic Energy gas stations as of
Lawyer Viacheslav Kyrda noted that this is not about point amendments, but about a real overhaul of Article 23 of the Law on Mobilization Training and Mobilization.
Thus, the rules for granting postponements and the possibility of obtaining it are proposed to be significantly changed for:
parents of children with disabilities and children with severe illnesses;
citizens who have a disability of a spouse or parents – tied to permanent caregiving; rules for persons who provide constant care;
relatives of the second and third degree of kinship and guardians;
students.
According to the lawyer, for doctoral candidates and third-level students it was proposed to preserve the right to postpone only if studying in specialties officially approved by the Cabinet of Ministers as critically important for the state’s security and defense.
That is, if such a norm ever becomes law, some doctoral candidates may lose their current right to a postponement,
— wrote the lawyer.
Comparative table of changes proposed by the bill / Screenshots by Ukrainian Center for Human Rights Protection
Linking to permanent caregiving and financial consequences
According to the explanatory note released by Lyudmila Denisova, the aim of the changes is to remove ambiguities in the application of the norms and to synchronize the conditions.
For families, such a step creates not only bureaucratic difficulties but also a direct risk to the family budget. Permanent caregiving involves officially formalizing the caregiver’s special status, which legally precludes full-time employment and forces the family to live on meager social benefits and pensions instead of stable earnings.
Civil activists note that they have already collected 2 360 questionnaires during a public survey of people who care for relatives and fear being unable to obtain certificates. The currently published document is only a proposal for discussion.
What was known before
Recall that changes to the rules for issuing postponements caused public resonance. Lawyer Daria Tarasenko wrote that the Office of the Military Ombudsman proposed the Ministry of Defense reduce the list of grounds for postponement from mobilization, increasing the requirements for caregiving for sick relatives and raising the status of children with disabilities. The initiative provides for abolishing postponement for caregiving for third-degree relatives and introducing additional conditions for maintenance for second-degree relatives.
At the same time, the list of grounds for exemption from mobilization is being expanded. Now this right has been granted to specialists from the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Стосується різних категорій: які зміни пропонують у масштабному проєкті щодо правил відстрочки". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Channel 24.
