Fake news: Territorial recruitment centres are private organizations, so mobilization is illegal

Here’s another fake news story from the founders of Corporation Ukraine (no, it’s a fake): “Territorial recruitment centres (TRCs) are private organizations, so mobilization is illegal!”

“TRCs were established by the Cabinet of Ministers, and not by a law of the Verkhovna Rada. If there is no law on the creation of TRCs, what then is their legal status? It’s just a gang formation. Only military enlistment offices were allowed to issue draft notices; the TRC is a worthless structure that hasn’t been confirmed by law,” says Marian, whom you see on the screen (we won’t mention his name to avoid creating another Hulu profile).

At first, we didn’t even think this topic was worth consideration - it was so insignificant. But, when we saw that the video had 155,000 views and several thousand grateful comments, we decided to rebut it… so that you could have an answer ready for Marian’s followers.

Explanation

Territorial recruitment and social support centres are the legal successors of military enlistment offices, on the basis of which they were established. This is stated in part two of the Final Provisions of Law of Ukraine No.1357-IX dated 30.03.2021. 

This law also brought in amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Military Duty and Military Service”. In particular, parts 7 and 8 of Art. 1 were amended as follows:

“7. Ukrainian citizens are obligated by law to carry out compulsory military service, which shall be ensured by state bodies, local self-government bodies, military formations established in compliance with the laws of Ukraine, enterprises, institutions and organizations regardless of subordination and form of ownership within the limits of their powers provided for by law, as well as by district (unified district), municipal (district municipal, unified municipal) territorial recruitment and social support centres, territorial recruitment and social support centres of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regions, and the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol.”

and

“8. The Regulation on territorial recruitment and social support centres shall be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.”

 To implement these provisions, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a resolution dated 23.02.2022 concerning the Regulation on territorial recruitment and social support centres. 

It states that TRCs are “military administration bodies that ensure the implementation of legislation concerning military duty and military service, mobilization training and mobilization.”