Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukraine published the full package of proposals from the Office of the Military Ombudsman regarding a comprehensive review of grounds for granting draft call deferrals and discharge from service. The initiative proposes substantial changes to the rules for guardians, people caring for relatives with disabilities, and higher education students.
Key proposals of the draft law on changing deferral rules
The public organization "Ukrainian Center for the Protection of Human Rights" obtained copies of the documents in response to an official information request. The package includes the draft law itself, a comparative table, an explanatory note, and an accompanying letter that was sent to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence on 15 September 2026 of this year. This was written by the chair of the association's board and former ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova.
Publishing the documents sparked wide interest because the initial version of the draft contained much broader restrictions than had been discussed previously. Although recently the Office of the Military Ombudsman, after consultations with parental communities, announced a revision of the approach regarding parents of children with disabilities, the other points remain an open question.
The documents propose additional requirements regarding continuous caregiving, the presence of other family members, and circumstances on which the right to a deferral depends,
– Denisova summarized.
Officially, the Office of the Military Ombudsman states that the purpose of the draft law is to protect the rights of service members and give them broader possibilities for discharge from service for family reasons. But in practice it turns out that expanding guarantees for service members may narrow existing guarantees for other families.
Important! The draft law has only been submitted for consideration to the responsible 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 Vyacheslav Kyrda noted that this is not about targeted edits, but about an actual revision of Article 23 of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization."
Thus, it is proposed to reconsider deferral rules and substantially change the possibility of obtaining one for:
parents of children with disabilities and children with serious illnesses;
citizens who have a spouse or parents with disabilities — tied to the requirement of continuous caregiving; rules for persons who provide continuous care;
relatives of the second and third degree of kinship and guardians;
students.
According to the lawyer, for postgraduate students and third-level degree candidates it was proposed to preserve the right to a deferral only if they are studying in specialties that the Cabinet of Ministers officially approves as critically important for the state's security and defense.
So if such a provision ever becomes law, some postgraduates could lose their current right to a deferral,
– the lawyer wrote.
Comparative table of changes proposed by the draft law / Screenshots by the NGO "Ukrainian Center for the Protection of Human Rights"
Tying to continuous caregiving and financial consequences
According to the explanatory note published by Lyudmyla Denisova, the purpose of the changes is to eliminate ambiguous application of the norms and to synchronize conditions.
For families, such a step creates not only bureaucratic difficulties but also a direct risk to the family budget. Continuous caregiving implies formal registration of a special caregiver status, which legally makes full employment impossible, forcing the family to live only on meager social payments and pensions instead of a stable income.
Civic activists indicate that they have already collected 2 360 questionnaires during a survey of citizens who care for relatives and fear being unable to obtain the required certificates. The published document is currently only a proposal for discussion.
What was previously known
Recall that changes to the rules for processing deferrals caused public resonance. Lawyer Daria Tarasenko wrote that the Office of the Military Ombudsman proposed to the Ministry of Defense to reduce the list of grounds for deferral from mobilization by tightening requirements for caregiving for sick relatives and raising children with disabilities. The initiative foresees canceling deferrals for care of family members of the third degree of kinship and introducing additional conditions for support of relatives of the second degree of kinship.
At the same time, the list of grounds for exemption from mobilization is expanding. Now this right has been granted to specialists of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance.
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.
