The Cabinet of Ministers has submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) that would introduce criminal liability in Ukraine for illegally crossing the border during martial law. The proposed penalty ranges from a fine of UAH 119,000 (about US$2,800) to three years’ imprisonment.

The Cabinet of Ministers has submitted a bill to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) that would introduce criminal liability in Ukraine for illegally crossing the border during martial law. The proposed penalty ranges from a fine of UAH 119,000 (about US$2,800) to three years’ imprisonment.

Source: Verkhovna Rada website

Quote from bill No. 13673: “…Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal transportation of persons across the state border) shall be supplemented with a qualifying feature making this a criminal offence under martial law… Criminal liability shall be established for illegally crossing the state border during martial law or a state of emergency, either outside official checkpoints or at checkpoints but without proper documents or using forged documents.”

Details: The penalties proposed for the offence are a fine ranging from 7,000 to 10,000 times the non-taxable minimum citizen’s income (i.e. UAH 119,000 to 170,000 (US$2,800-4,100)) or up to three years’ imprisonment.

The Cabinet of Ministers also proposes that people who left Ukraine illegally but returned within three months and turned themselves in to law enforcement should be exempt from criminal liability, providing they did so before being served with a notice of suspicion.

An explanatory note attached to the bill says: “Currently, people liable for military service (conscripts, reservists) who illegally cross the state border of Ukraine may only be subject to administrative liability under Article 204-1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, but this does not have a sufficient punitive or preventive effect, as the number of such crossings continues to rise.”

The Cabinet of Ministers also maintains that the draft law contains no provisions that violate the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, nor does it infringe on gender equality or create grounds for discrimination. The government further asserts that the bill poses no risk of corruption offences being committed.

The government hopes that the new law “will contribute to ensuring the proper legal regulation of liability for crossing Ukraine’s state border with the aim of evading military service during mobilisation”.

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