Fighters of the Northern Military District who have served six months under contract want to be exempted from compulsory service

State Duma deputies are developing amendments to the legislation that will allow exempting from compulsory service fighters of the special operation to protect Donbas who voluntarily signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry and served for six months. This was announced on February 18 by the head of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrei Kartapolov.

He pointed out at the plenary session that the beginning of the special operation has seriously improved the sphere of legislation related to defense, more than 120 laws have been adopted.

"We still have a number of problems to solve: <...> this is the exemption from conscription of persons who voluntarily signed a contract with the Defense Ministry and fought for at least six months during the special military operation," the head of the State Duma committee told the plenary session.

Kartapolov suggested that this will be a government bill to be discussed during the spring session of the lower house of parliament. The State Duma believes that volunteer fighters who participated in a special operation for six months under contract with the Defense Ministry have every right not to undergo compulsory service, and this is absolutely fair.

Earlier, on January 24, a bill was introduced in the State Duma, providing for the exemption of fighters who participated in special operations in the ranks of volunteer formations from compulsory service. It was specified that now they do not have such a right under the law, and this is a gap that needs to be eliminated.

Before that, on January 23, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the government will allocate 11.3 billion rubles to the "Defenders of the Fatherland" fund. These funds will be taken from the federal budget on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The money will be used to make lump-sum payments to the participants of the special operation who became disabled after being wounded.