Obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations vs. complicity in evasion of military service during mobilization: problems of qualification in judicial practice

The article analyzes the final verdicts delivered in 2024 and posted in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions, in which the actions of the accused are qualified under Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author identifies five variants of the defendants’ unlawful behavior which were qualified as obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, namely, creation and/or administration of channels in Internet messengers for posting information on the delivery of summonses by employees of the Territorial Center for Manning and Social Training; drafting and issuance of knowingly false official documents which served as the basis for assigning a person a relevant disability group and which excluded the registration of vehicles for military use; issuing to other persons certificates, chevrons of membership in a public organization and enrollment in a volunteer military unit, which did not exempt such persons from military service; enrollment in a full-time higher education institution without relevant military registration documents for money and issuance of a certificate of enrollment; participation in blocking a vehicle in which employees of the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Training carried out mobilization activities on the territory of the. It is stated that most of the cases qualified under Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are subject to criminal law assessment as complicity in evasion of conscription for military service under mobilization (Article 336 of the of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) or under other articles of the Special Part of this Code which provide for liability for the sole commission of the relevant crimes. The author identifies and characterizes the features of the object of the crime under Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as the signs of obstruction of lawful activity as a socially dangerous act.