As Ukraine seeks to mobilize more troops to repel Russian forces, the parliament in Kyiv on Wednesday adopted a draft law allowing certain categories of detainees amnesty on the condition they go to fight on the front line.
The bill was adopted following its second reading and will now be submitted to the head of the Ukrainian parliament before needing sign-off by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Olena Shuliak, a lawmaker for Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, explained in a social media post that the measure was aimed exclusively at voluntary detainees and would require the consent of the military authorities after an examination of their physical and mental health.
The mobilization will not apply to prisoners convicted of certain serious crimes, in particular “willful killing of more than two people,” sexual violence, attacks on national security, or “serious” convictions for corruption, Shuliak added.
People convicted while holding important political positions will not be eligible for the measure.
The convicts will serve in special army units, and only prisoners with a sentence of less than three years in prison could make such a request.
“We can survive in the conditions of an all-out war against an enemy with more resources only by consolidating all our forces,” Shuliak said.
After more than two years of resistance against a bloody Russian invasion, Ukraine faces a shortage of soldiers and weapons in the face of a much larger and better-equipped Russian army. Moscow has already recruited tens of thousands of convicts from its prison camps to fight on the Ukrainian front.
