General mobilization was announced in Ukraine by presidential decree. Because of this, any male person between the ages of 18 and 60 can receive a summons. Of course, it is clarified that first of all those with combat experience will be mobilized and called up. However, reports are received from representatives of the client base of the REAct project that summonses are issued to men in any location, despite the lack of military experience and regardless of their health status (drug addiction and being on the RRT program, positive HIV status, etc.). Such a phenomenon arises in a part of customers due to anxiety and excitement due to a lack of knowledge.
Let’s analyze this issue. By law, during mobilization, citizens are required to appear at the assembly points of the territorial recruitment and social support center (former military commissars) within the time limits specified in the documents (summons) they received.
The summons must be delivered to the citizen personally, under signature, while the law does not specifically define the place where the summons must be delivered, because of this, it can be delivered in any place, that is, at a checkpoint, on the street, in public institutions, at workplaces, in houses, etc.
Employees of the territorial recruitment and social support center (TRC and SS) are responsible for writing out and serving a summons to a person, but recently the list of persons authorized to serve has been expanded, which will be explained below.
Let’s analyze the case when, for example, a person is stopped on the street by the military – employees of the territorial recruitment center and directly at the place of the stop issue a summons for further delivery, although this is not legal. In any case, after receiving the summons, it is important not to panic, but carefully, before putting your signature on receiving it, read the contents of the summons to make sure that everything is specified in it as it should be.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that the summons must include: the surname, first name and patronymic of the conscript, the year of birth and the address of the person being summoned; his place of work; the type of summons – important! (clarification of credentials, passing a medical examination, arrival at the territorial recruitment and social support center, conscription for military service); date, time, and address – when and where to appear; the name of the body, wet seal, signature, surname, first name, and patronymic of the head of the territorial recruitment and social support center.
If the summons is filled in incorrectly, the person may not sign it due to existing errors. In this case, the official who tried to serve the summons can draw up an act of refusal to receive the summons with a mandatory indication of such a reason in the presence of witnesses. Witnesses are needed in order to confirm, in any case, what was the legal basis for a person’s refusal to receive a summons. After all, there is a possibility that if a conscript does not appear before the military commissariat after receiving a summons, he may have trouble with the law. Therefore, the act of refusal to receive a summons must either contain legal grounds for refusal, or it is better not to allow it to be drawn up at all. An act of refusal is drawn up in order to impose a fine on a person and further bring the person to justice, for example, in case of subsequent refusals to come to the military commissariat (recruitment center). But it must be understood that such a refusal act can only be drawn up by an official of the assembly center if she has the passport data of the conscript, for example, when he provided her with his passport for review.
The summons must be filled out and signed by the head of the TRC and SS in advance, and not filled out when a person is stopped on the street by some military officer who is probably not an employee of the TRC and SS. It should also be noted that if the person did not sign the receipt of the summons, then his responsibility for failure to appear on the summons is actually absent. It should be noted separately that the military does not have the right to grab a person, shove him into a car and take him to the military commissary (territorial recruitment center) – this is a direct violation of the rights of a person, which can be appealed and should entail liability for them by law.
So, let’s summarize – a summons is considered legally received if:
- it was handed over by employees of territorial recruitment and social support centers (TRC and SS) or the persons specified below;
- it is issued in compliance with all requirements (correctly entered data, available signature of the head of the picking center, and seal of this center).
If a person is served with a summons without complying with the established requirements, then he has the right to refuse it, for this a corresponding act is drawn up in the presence of witnesses. When refusing a summons under such conditions, a person will bear responsibility – neither criminal nor administrative.
Separately, it should be noted that from the beginning of 2023, a new order of military accounting began to operate in our country, according to which the following acquired the right to serve summonses, in addition to direct officials of the TRC and SS, also:
- representatives of the local self-government body;
- head or authorized person at the enterprise, institution, or organization where the conscript works;
- authorized persons at the educational institution where the conscript is studying;
- employees of apartment building managers (condominiums or management companies).
At the same time, it is necessary to ask the person who tries to serve a summons, to name himself and to present for perusal an official ID card or other document confirming his identity and authority.
It is worth remembering that a summons can be served only by a person authorized to take such actions, which, for example, representatives of the TRD or the police do not even now belong to. Also, summonses, for example, left at the door of an apartment, are not considered to have been served properly, and therefore cannot be the basis for bringing a person to justice in case of non-arrival according to it to the collection center.
In general, there are several types of summons according to the order of service:
- Summons to clarify credentials: the main purpose (currently the most common) is to update the personal data of a conscript.
- Summons for passing a military medical commission (MMC) – to establish a person’s suitability for military service.
- The summons on mobilization, is handed to the person last.
Representatives of key communities, especially such as PLHIV, PLTB, PWID, and OST patients, know that sometimes a state of health makes a person unfit for a significant workload, including military service, but there are persons who are unfit for service at all, and there are others who are unfit for it in peacetime, but limitedly fit in wartime. What such a person can do should be decided to take into account individual contraindications according to the medical board.
It also raises the question of what to do if, for example, close relatives need constant care and assistance. Yes, if a potentially mobilized person has elderly parents or close relatives, or children who need constant care due to health conditions, then he can be exempted from military service. However, to confirm such circumstances, it is necessary to present documents, in particular medical reports of a healthcare institution, to the territorial center of recruitment and social support.