Ukraine's parliament has approved a decree on partial army mobilization

March 17 (Interfax - Ukraine) The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has approved a decree issued by acting Ukrainian President and parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov on partial army mobilization.

 The decision was supported by 275 out of 308 MPs registered in the session hall on Monday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported. As was earlier reported, Turchynov said he had signed a decree on partial mobilization. "I have signed a decree on partial mobilization," Turchynov said in a plenary session of the Ukrainian parliament on Monday morning.

Turchynov said the decree was signed due to the situation with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, "with due regard to further aggression in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which Russia is trying to hide under a great farce called a 'referendum,' which will never be recognized by either Ukraine or the whole civilized world." The Ukrainian parliament also registered a draft law approving the presidential decree on partial mobilization. In accordance with the explanatory note attached to the bill on the approval of the presidential decree, a decision on partial mobilization was made "due to the exacerbation of the sociopolitical situation on the Crimean peninsula." Partial mobilization is conducted on the territory of all regions of Ukraine and in Kyiv. In Crimea and Sevastopol, citizens subject to mobilization are citizens who have voluntarily expressed a wish to be conscripted, including by coming to military commissariats and military units. "The decree creates conditions for introducing a military time regime in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard of Ukraine, and other military units of Ukraine and civil defense operative and rescue services," the agenda says. The mobilization will be conducted for a period for 45 days from the day of enactment of the aforementioned decree.

In accordance with Article 85 of the Ukrainian Constitution, the Ukrainian parliament has the powers to approve decrees introducing martial law or states of emergency in Ukraine or in some of its regions, general or partial mobilization, and on declaring specific areas as zones of ecological emergency within two days of a request being made by the president of Ukraine.