The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has endorsed a draft law prepared by the Ministry of Defence that significantly expands the rights of members of the Armed Forces in the area of anti-corruption efforts. According to the Ministry of Defence's press service, the document proposes amendments to the Disciplinary Code of the Armed Forces and grants military personnel the right to independently send reports on identified corrupt or corruption-related offences to the authorized units and officials responsible for preventing and detecting corruption.
What the new bill changes
The current version of the Disciplinary Code of the Armed Forces of Ukraine limits a service member's right to file a complaint to cases where a commander has made unlawful decisions regarding that specific service member, violated their rights, or unlawfully subjected them to disciplinary liability. As a result, under the current wording, a service member had no direct right to initiate the exposure of corrupt schemes not directly related to their personal position. The new draft law removes this restriction: a service member who identifies possible facts of corrupt or corruption-related offences will have the right to send reports to the authorized units for the prevention and detection of corruption.
Protection of whistleblowers from reprisals
A key element of the bill is the mechanism for protecting whistleblowers. According to the document, a service member who becomes a whistleblower on corrupt offences cannot be dismissed from service, coerced into resigning, subjected to disciplinary liability, or exposed to any other negative measures of influence in connection with the submission of a report. In addition, the bill provides service members with the right to independently choose the channels for notifying the authorized bodies, ensuring additional flexibility and safety when exposing corruption.
Context: large-scale corruption schemes in the defence sector
The Ministry of Defence's initiative to expand the anti-corruption powers of military personnel comes against the backdrop of a series of high-profile exposures in the defence sector. In particular, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) recently uncovered a large-scale scheme involving the sale of medicines for medical institutions and the Defence Forces at artificially inflated prices, causing damage to the state budget of over 80 million hryvnias. Such cases demonstrate the systemic nature of corruption risks in defence procurement and underscores the need for institutional mechanisms that allow ordinary service members to safely report violations.
Status of the document and next steps
At present, the draft law is at the stage of being endorsed by the Cabinet of Ministers. To enter into force, the document must be registered and adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Once the parliamentary procedure is completed, the amendments will be incorporated into the Disciplinary Code of the Armed Forces, effectively creating an institutional channel for anti-corruption monitoring within the army that complements the work of external bodies such as the NABU and the SBU.
