Parliamentarians in the second reading plan to adopt law No. 4210, which provides for a significant strengthening of the position of the Minister of Defense. The bill was developed back in 2020 and adopted as a basis only on February 16, 2022.

The fact that the bill is being prepared for the second reading became known against the backdrop of the scandal surrounding the deputy of the Servant of the People, Maryana Bezugly, who provided the committee of national security, defense and intelligence of the Verkhovna Rada with false information about her alleged preliminary approval of the version of the bill with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.

According to the comparative note of the bill, which has already been prepared for the second reading, the Minister of Defense should be given the authority to approve the regulation on the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the right to nominate officers of the highest military command to the President for appointment to senior positions in the Armed Forces or their dismissal.

Important detail! The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will become subordinate to the Minister of Defense , and not exclusively to the President, as it is now.

They also want to introduce into the legislative base a norm that is absent in the current legislation, that is, to give the right to the Minister of Defense to cancel the decision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Also, the bill spelled out rules prohibiting military personnel, and especially military leaders, from expressing their comments on domestic political issues and participating in political activities, respectively. In particular, they want to ban active servicemen from running or holding political positions at any level, in particular, in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

The powers of Parliament will also be expanded

At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada is planned to be given the authority to approve the candidacies of military leaders by a decision of the parliament. At the same time, not the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the Minister of Defense, who is responsible for another direction of the military system, should submit candidates for the president.

The bill also provides that neither a retired military man can be appointed to the post of Minister of Defense, nor his first deputy or deputy, if less than 5 years have passed since his dismissal from service.

It should be recalled that in the first days of the full-scale invasion of the delegations from Ukraine and Russia, negotiations were held. When the enemy side offered Ukraine to capitulate, the Minister of Defense sent delegates after the Russian ship. A conversation with the proposal of the Russians regarding the “surrender” took place in Brest in February-March 2022. Then the delegation of Ukraine was headed by the Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov.