Services of a military lawyer in criminal cases

The services of a military lawyer in criminal cases on the territory of Ukraine, unfortunately, are in quite high demand since the beginning of the hybrid war of Russia against Ukraine, and after the full-scale invasion of the Russians, the number of servicemen in need of legal protection has reached very significant volumes.

For the most part, the services of a military lawyer in criminal cases relate to the following:

• Disobedience or non-fulfillment of an order characterized by an open refusal to disobey the order of a superior, superior in rank, or other non-fulfillment of an order that must be carried out with intent. Criminal liability with deprivation of liberty is provided for the commission of such actions.
• Voluntary desertion of a military unit or place of service is characterized by the fact that a serviceman intending to leave a military unit or place of service disappears without a corresponding notification, permission, or failure to return from leave at the appointed time.
• Desertion, characterized by the fact that the serviceman initially leaves the place of service, and then disappears for an indefinite period of time, when his whereabouts cannot be established. The subjective side of this crime is the intention to evade further military service.
• Evasion of conscription for military service during mobilization for a personal period, this offense is typical for persons who are conscripted and have the intention to avoid fulfilling their duty regarding military service.

From the point of view of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the above offenses are characterized by the direct intention of the conscript to avoid fulfilling his duty.

However, during the time when the country is in a state of war, there are many situations when servicemen, without intending to avoid the performance of their duties, receive the status of a suspect in committing a criminal offense. This can happen as a result of leaving the previously occupied combat positions in connection with, for example, running out of ammunition and a large number of wounded and dead, lack of basic water… All these conditions together can become the basis for entering relevant information into the ERDR, as well as, for example, significant the destruction of a military unit as a result of rocket fire with subsequent abandonment by the military of such a unit.

Information was entered into the EDPR even regarding military personnel who came out under shelling from the encirclement (for example, Ilovaisk), which cannot, let’s say, be considered correct.

 

In practice, groundless accusations of a criminal offense (in our case, actions without criminal intent of the military in the sense of the legislation in the field of criminal law) and prosecution can be prevented by proving factual circumstances justifying the necessity of certain actions of the military that did not have a criminal purpose intention, but is the result of circumstances that do not depend on them.