Conscription Draft Law Consideration Delayed – Parliament Cancels Meeting

The Ukrainian parliament’s Committee of National Security and Defense meeting, which was supposed to consider amendments to the bill on conscription – which the military said is necessary to pass in order to increase the number of soldiers to defend Ukraine from Russia’s ongoing invasion – on Wednesday, March 13, was canceled.

As lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko, of the European Solidarity party, wrote on his Facebook, the Ukrainian parliament’s (Verkhovna Rada) committee may be intentionally dragging its feet.

Since further discussion on the draft law was approved on Feb. 7, the controversial bill has gotten 4,195 amendments from lawmakers.

Honcharenko said that the deadline for submitting amendments expired on Feb. 21.

Since then, the committee has met to consider amendments only once – on March 12 – and discussed only one amendment.

Some observers are saying that the committee's slowness in considering the amendments before the second reading may indicate an intention to bury the controversial mobilization bill before it’s brought before it’s brought forward for a vote.

On March 5, the Verkhovna Rada canceled meetings scheduled for March 6-8, slowing down the consideration of other important bills, which may also influence how quickly the mobilization draft law is considered.