The Speaker of Parliament and President Zelensky must sign the bill for it to become law.
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill that would allow some prisoners to fight in the armed forces as the military faces critical personnel shortages and Russian forces continue to advance on the battlefield.
Wednesday’s move marks a reversal in Ukraine’s stance on the matter. Kiev had long opposed the measure and repeatedly criticized Moscow for mobilizing prisoners to replenish its ranks.
Before the law can come into force, it must be signed by the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada parliament and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Parliament voted yes,” MP Olena Shuljak, leader of Zelensky’s party, said in a Facebook post.
“The bill opens the possibility of joining the defense forces to certain categories of prisoners who have expressed a desire to defend their country,” she said.
Mobilization would be voluntary and reserved only for certain categories of prisoners.
Those ineligible for service include those convicted of sexual violence, killing two or more people or serious corruption, as well as former high-ranking officials, Shuliak said.
Only prisoners with less than three years left on their sentence can apply, she said. All mobilized prisoners would be released on parole rather than a pardon.
“Redemption through Blood”
The Protection for Prisoners of Ukraine organization, which had campaigned for a measure that would allow prisoners to fight, was disappointed with the adopted text.
“We support the idea behind the law, … but the adopted text is discriminatory,” said the head of the NGO, Oleg Tsvily.
“They abolished vacation [fighting] prisoners, and we don’t know if they should fight until the end of the war – which could mean longer than their sentence,” he explained.
Tsvily said he feared that the creation of “special forces” for mobilized soldiers would lead to abuses against prisoners.
“It’s like in Russia – salvation through blood. … Anyone willing to fight will be divided into a unit and commanded like meat,” he said.
He was referring to reported practices by the Wagner mercenary group of sending waves of convicts into raids that were likened to “meat grinders.”
Russia has been recruiting prisoners for front-line service since the first days of its invasion in February 2022, initially offering a presidential pardon for six months of service.
This practice was spearheaded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was filmed touring Russian prisons to recruit foot soldiers for his Wagner group.
More than two years after the start of the war, Kiev is grappling with the question of how to recruit enough soldiers to fend off an intensification of Russian attacks at the front.
It recently tightened measures against conscientious objectors and lowered the age at which men can be drafted from 27 to 25.