According to a separate order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, military unit commanders issue orders requiring the formation of lists of military lawyers.
One such order was received by the civic initiative ”Holka“ from sources in the Ministry of Defense.
The orders are based on the law “On the Bar and Practice of Law,” which indeed prohibits combining military service and practice of law.
But why did they take up the case only now, in the third year of the great war?
The text of the order according to the order of the Commander-in-Chief of May 10, 2024, on the formation of lists of lawyers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine
“To explain to servicemen who have the status of an advocate the provisions of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Bar and Practice of Law”. The status of a lawyer is incompatible with military service… to warn servicemen who have the status of a lawyer that the military unit will initiate before the relevant regional bar councils the issue of bringing to disciplinary responsibility, in case of non-compliance with the requirements of Article 7 of the law…, other measures of disciplinary influence,” the order says, the deadline for which is to be reported by May 24.
The head of the board of the Zmina Human Rights Center, Tetyana Pechonchyk, suggests that the case was intensified at the request of the National Bar Association of Ukraine:
Earlier this year, MPs Anatoliy Tkachenko (Servant of the People) and Antonina Slavytska (Restoration of Ukraine) introduced a bill that would allow for the possibility of combining military service and legal practice. It was criticized by committee member Volodymyr Vatras (Servant of the People). So far, this initiative has not been considered by the committee.
Mykhailo Zhernakov, Chairman of the Board of the Dejure Foundation, suggests that the Committee on Legal Policy, headed by Denys Maslov of the Servant party, should develop amendments to the Law on the Bar, which currently allows a monopoly in this area:
The current speaker of the Bar Association Shevchuk next to the late traitor Kiva
The legislative initiative, which, if adopted, could fine journalists who associate a lawyer with his or her client (11279), appeared in May. In fact, two months after the Ukrainian National Bar Association published its open appeal on “violation of media guarantees of the legal profession”. Thus, the requirements of the Association are being fulfilled by the Legal Policy Committee quite quickly.
On May 22, the UNBA website published information that “the Verkhovna Rada supported” the UNBA initiative. However, it was not a matter of the parliament supporting this initiative, but only of the submission of a draft law by several MPs.
By the way, one of the co-authors of the initiative lobbied by the Association is Oleksandr Puzanov, MP elected from the OPFL. He is a member of the so-called “Monaco battalion”. As the leader of the Kyiv branch of the now-banned Opposition Bloc party, he had previously stated:
As for the current leadership of the Bar Association, which is lobbying for these legislative changes, it has been actively contacting its Russian counterparts during the occupation of Crimea and Donbas. In this photo, the head of the Association, Izovitova, is seen next to Yuriy Pylypenko, a representative of the Moscow Region Bar Association.
Screenshot from the website of the Bar Association
Pylypenko appears on one of the lists of “Accomplices of the occupation authorities” created by the International Anti-Corruption Foundation (an organization of Navalny’s supporters). He “actively supported Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. He assisted the occupation administration in Zaporizhzhia region to integrate this territory into Russia” – this is the reason given opposite the name of the lawyer with whom Izovitova was photographed.
Lawyer Artem Donets, who went to the front and has repeatedly reported harassment by the Association, emphasizes: “Izovitova has been the head of the Association for more than 10 years and her term of office expired in 2022. Even under this Yanukovych-era law, there should be elections for the leadership.
As a reminder, the Constitutional Court is currently considering a complaint filed by lawyer Viacheslav Pleskach. This complaint concerns the “serfdom” in the bar, which was enshrined in law during the Yanukovych era. Any lawyer has to be a member of the National Bar Association of Ukraine and pay dues. Anyone who is not a member of the association has no right to practice law.
Special for “Glavcom”
