Nearly 2,000 criminal cases were suspended this year due to the mobilization of the accused
The number of such suspensions has been increasing year over year
8 August 2025
At least 7,300 criminal cases have been suspended due to the defendant being drafted into the army since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to the court registry search tool Babusia. This year alone, more than 1,900 cases have already been put on hold because of mobilization — nearly the same as during all of 2023. Most of these cases in 2025 were in the Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
At least 7,312 criminal cases have been suspended due to defendants being drafted into the Armed Forces of Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. This legal mechanism was introduced in 2022, when changes were made to Ukraine’s Criminal Procedure Code, and since then it has been actively used by courts.
The number of such suspensions keeps growing each year. In the first year of the full-scale war, 858 cases were suspended. The number kept rising, with a record 2,406 cases paused in 2024 due to defendants joining the military. So far in 2025, 1,973 such cases have already been suspended.
| Year | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of suspended criminal cases | 858 | 2,075 | 2,406 | 1,973 |
The highest number of case suspensions due to mobilization was recorded in the Kyiv region — 617 cases, Lviv region ranks second with 582 cases, followed by the Dnipropetrovsk region with 559 cases.
It’s important to understand that suspending criminal proceedings is not the same as automatically exempting someone from liability. However, in practice, the trial is postponed for an indefinite period. This creates room for potential abuse — especially in high-profile corruption cases or when the defendant holds a rear (non-combat) military position.
That’s why a draft law — No. 13284 — has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. It proposes amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine concerning the specifics of holding mobilized individuals criminally liable. In particular, the bill would allow pre-trial investigation and court hearings to continue in certain categories of criminal cases, even if the defendant has been mobilized.
The draft law also aims to reduce the potential for abuse of mobilization: Suspension of proceedings would be allowed only in cases where the defendant is directly involved in defense operations, confirmed by a combat order (directive) issued by the commander of a military unit or subunit.
“At the moment, there is clearly a lack of a mechanism to appeal the suspension of proceedings and resume the trial in cases where the court or a party abuses this right. Of course, mobilization should not become a circumstance that undermines the fundamental principles of criminal justice — in particular, access to justice, the adversarial nature of the process, and the inevitability of punishment. At the same time, we must also think about the individual who, while risking their life, wishes at the very least to restore their reputation — but cannot defend themselves in court because they are at war,”
— comments Tetiana Popovska, Senior Associate at Asters.
Source: Opendatabot
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