Odesa court does not punish a soldier who left the unit without permission

The Kyiv District Court of Odesa has released a military officer from serving his sentence for unauthorizedly leaving a military unit under martial law.

According to the court's ruling, this was based on a motion filed by the prosecutor of the Odesa Specialized Defense Prosecutor's Office of the Southern Region.

The accused sent a motion to the court, in which he asked to consider the case without his participation, supported the prosecutor's opinion in full and insisted on its satisfaction, noting that he had sent a motion to the prosecutor's office to release him from criminal liability on the grounds of his intention to return to the military unit and continue his military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

For the offense, the military man faced imprisonment for a term of five to ten years.

In March, Odesa activist Serhiy Hnezdilov, known for publicly leaving his unit without permission and then returning to service, appealed to the Constitutional Court to complain about discriminatory provisions against the military in the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine.

In November 2024, the Kyiv District Court of Odesa granted the prosecutor's motion and released a local resident who was accused of leaving the military unit without permission from liability.

The man served as a senior shooter-operator with the rank of junior sergeant and left the military unit in May to go to the hospital and did not return until October, when he came to the State Bureau of Investigation. When the prosecutor requested that the sergeant be released from criminal liability, he emphasized that it was the first time the man had committed a criminal offense and that his military commander had agreed that the junior sergeant should continue his military service in the military unit in question. The court also took into account that the man came and surrendered himself. Therefore, the man was given 72 hours to return.

Кирило Бойко