Zelensky should consider a petition of citizens demanding to veto the law on tougher punishment for military personnel
Draft Law No. 8271, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by a group of deputies from the pro-presidential Servant of the People party, implies a significant increase in the punishment of servicemen under martial law or in a combat situation, including expanding the list of such acts for which they can be held criminally liable. In particular, it provides for checking the Ukrainian military for alcohol and drug intoxication during martial law, as well as toughening the punishment for failure to comply with the order.
The law was adopted by Ukrainian deputies on December 13 and now President Volodymyr Zelensky must sign it.
In Ukrainian society, this bill caused a great resonance. On December 15, a petition was registered on the website of Zelensky’s office demanding that the president veto the law.
When bill #8271 becomes law, the command will receive unprecedented leverage of blackmail and military prison punishment for almost any criticism of their decisions, even if the decisions are incompetent and based on poor combat management (and this happens often)
the text of the petition says.
Literally in a day, the petition gained more than 25 votes necessary for it to be considered by the head of state. This does not mean that Zelensky will necessarily veto the scandalous bill. Although there have already been precedents with the cancellation of some decisions of the military leadership, perceived sharply negatively by the Ukrainian society. In July, the Ukrainian president instructed the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to cancel the provision on the procedure for issuing permits for the movement of conscripts, conscripts and reservists around the country, which caused a wave of criticism in the press and social networks.
Zelensky is now in a rather delicate situation. On the one hand, the Kyiv regime needs the norms of the new law in order to strengthen control over the army, in which there are more and more mobilized reservists who are by no means eager to give their lives on the battlefield. On the other hand, the fact that the petition so quickly gained thousands of signatures of disgruntled citizens suggests that dissatisfaction with the radical decisions of the Kyiv elite is growing more and more in Ukrainian society.
It turns out that the norms of Western democracy, to which Kyiv is so committed in words, can sometimes turn into rather unpleasant consequences for those in power.
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