Complaints against the army – now with results: military ombudsman will start working
12 May 18:02
A new office, the military ombudsman, will be opened in Ukraine. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has registered a draft law “On the Military Ombudsman” in the Verkhovna Rada.
This is done to create an additional effective mechanism for protecting the rights of servicemen, which will complement the existing means of protecting constitutional rights and freedoms of man and citizen without abolishing them or creating grounds for reviewing the competence of state bodies that ensure the protection and restoration of violated rights and freedoms. What will the military ombudsman do?
Should solve problems of the military
The main tasks entrusted to the newly appointed ombudsman are as follows: exercising democratic civilian control over the security and defense sector to ensure that military authorities and military commanders respect the rights of
- military personnel
- persons liable for military service and reservists called up for training (or check-up) and special training
- members of volunteer formations of territorial communities during their participation in the preparation and execution of terrorist defense tasks, the implementation of certain tasks of the resistance movement in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
- foreigners and stateless persons performing military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Special Transport Service and the National Guard of Ukraine;
- special police officers of the National Police of Ukraine who are involved in direct participation in hostilities during martial law.
The Military Ombudsman will be appointed by the President of Ukraine for a term of five years, but not more than two consecutive terms. He or she can be a citizen of Ukraine, not younger than 30 years old, with a higher education not lower than a specialist (master’s) degree, fluent in the state language, with high moral qualities and impeccable reputation, who has lived in Ukraine for the last five years before the appointment and is able to perform the relevant duties for health reasons.
A person who does not meet the above requirements or, for example, has been declared incapacitated or with limited capacity by a court decision; has a criminal conviction, unless such conviction has been expunged or removed in accordance with the procedure established by law; or is a corrupt official – the list is quite extensive.
In the course of its activities, the ombudsman must receive complaints, as well as appoint and conduct inspections. The main tasks of the Military Ombudsman are to exercise democratic civilian control over the security and defense sector with regard to the observance of the rights of servicemen; to identify the causes and conditions of violations of the rights of servicemen based on the systematization and analysis of the information collected/received; to develop proposals on ways/means to minimize and eliminate such causes and conditions.
Complaints to the Military Ombudsman can be filed by servicemen themselves and other persons authorized by law. Based on the results of complaints, the Ombudsman or his deputy will have the right to appoint inspections in order to fully and objectively clarify the circumstances of a possible violation of the rights of servicemen. Based on the results of the inspections, a conclusion will be drawn up and sent to the commander (chief), who must respond to it and take appropriate measures. The Ombudsman will also be able to bring perpetrators to administrative responsibility.
It is expected that the Military Ombudsman will cooperate with the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights and provide him with the necessary assistance in accordance with the law. The Ombudsman, his deputies and employees of the Office will bear criminal, administrative, civil, material and disciplinary responsibility for unlawful actions or decisions, as well as for failure to perform or improper performance of their duties in accordance with the law.
The number of appeals has increased
Of course, the Office and its employees need money to set up and pay salaries. How much is currently unknown. The number of officials who will process complaints is also unknown, and there may be a lot of them. After all, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, reported back in March that in 2025 the number of appeals and cases of violations of rights during mobilization activities by employees of territorial recruitment centers increased.
In 2022, the Ombudsman received 435 appeals from the military, 136 of which identified military units as violators. In 2023, 2779 letters were received, 792 of which were complaints against units. In the first 11 months of 2024, the military contacted Lubinets 3807 times, of which 1036 were complaints about military units.
In the first half of 2024, the Ombudsman received almost twice as many complaints about units as in the same period of the previous year.
Military ombudsman should act like a military prosecutor
Roman Likhachev, a lawyer and human rights activist from the Helsinki Human Rights Union, notes that we already have a Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Persons Liable for Military Service, Olha Reshetylova (appointed in December 2024), but there has been no law until now. She also reported that she was working on a draft law “On the Military Ombudsman,” although it is strange to adopt a law on the powers and functions of the ombudsman after his appointment. The intrigue is whether she will remain in office or whether there will be another person. The draft law has already been written and submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, and it is marked “for immediate consideration.” But it’s raw – this is how a lawyer commented on the document in
“This is all well and good, but I would like the military ombudsman to pay attention not only to the military and their problems, but also to their family members, about whom the draft law does not say a word. A lot of questions concern missing soldiers. Then, the ombudsman will be empowered to draw up reports on administrative violations, and the fine will be only 8500-17000 hryvnias. For military units and officials, this is a small fine. For those liable for military service who have not registered or failed to appear when summoned, they are issued larger fines,” Likhachev said.
According to the lawyer, drawing up a report has little effect on law and order. Even getting a response from many units is not easy. Some ignore them, others are on a combat mission and cannot respond.
“Due to the absence of a military prosecutor’s office, the military ombudsman needs to be given its functions so that he can make submissions and appeal regulations. The protocol on administrative violations is not an effective mechanism; courts consider them within three months. There is no efficiency. And in fact, nothing will change. If we want to solve problems, then the military ombudsman should act like a military prosecutor,” believes Roman Lykhachov.
Of course, everything can be fixed later if it turns out that the ombudsman has no effect on anything. But this is time. Lost time and opportunities.
The author: Alla Dunina
