Fathers of disabled children are asked not to be taken away from the family

The Ministry of Defense is ready to support the amendments to the legislation on mobilization that were previously submitted to Parliament, providing a deferment from the draft for fathers of disabled children and citizens who are the only children of single parents who are pensioners. This was reported to Kommersant by the author of one of these bills, deputy Nina Ostanina. The day before, the initiative group of parents “We are near” again appealed to President Vladimir Putin and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense with a request to adjust the rules for mobilization. This happened after it became known about the death of the husband of Maria Chudova, a member of the movement, during an attack on the building of a vocational school in Makeevka (DPR) on the night of December 31 to January 1.

The All-Russian initiative group “We Are Near” (which unites 3,000 parents of disabled children, including adults, and parents with many children) has already several times appealed to the head of state, the Ministry of Defense and deputies with a request to exempt men raising children with disabilities from the mobilization call. disability, but did not receive substantive responses. The reason for the next letter was the death of Alexander Chudov from the Samara region, the father of two children, one of whom has cerebral palsy. The appeal says that the activist of the movement, Maria Chudova, learned about the death of her husband on January 17 – before that, he was considered missing. The attack on the Russian military camp in Makeevka, we recall, occurred on the night of December 31. According to official figures from the Ministry of Defense, 89 people were killed.

Since October 2022, after Alexander was mobilized, Ms. Chudova wrote several appeals to the regional prosecutor’s office – civil and military. In response letters, she was informed that the law on mobilization (FZ No. 31) does not give a deferment from the call for mobilization to citizens who have a dependent child with a disability.

The message to the head of state of the We Are Near group states that one of the children of Maria Chudova will not even receive a survivor’s pension: according to the law “On State Pensions”, a child with a disability is entitled to only one pension. “Given the“ right to choose ”: either a disability pension for a child, or a pension for the loss of a breadwinner,” the letter says. “How will Maria cope further? Raising a disabled child with cerebral palsy is not easy. They tried not to deprive their second son of attention. The husband was a faithful shoulder and strong arms, reliable protection.

Article 18 of the law on mobilization has been asked to be changed since the fall of last year by both public organizations, for example, the All-Russian Organization of Parents of Disabled Children (VORDI), and deputies. Several bills with amendments have been submitted to the State Duma. Two of them were prepared by deputy Nina Ostanina (KPRF), two more were submitted by the Just Russia – For Truth faction. The bill on deferment for the sole breadwinners of a family with disabled children was introduced by the deputies of the New People faction. Representatives of the LDPR faction propose to give a deferment to those who have a dependent child with a disability, disabled since childhood, as well as brothers of such disabled people. So far, none of these projects has been considered.

The mobilization of the mentioned categories of Russians is partially regulated by the directive of the Ministry of Defense of October 4 last year. The document extended the deferral to citizens who have dependents of three or more children under the age of 16 (the law on mobilization says about four or more minor children), parents of three or more children under 18, if at least one of these children is disabled, and parents of a child with palliative status.

“Those with many children, even if there are adequate governors and military commissars, are protected by the directive of the General Staff, which also, however, mythically either works or not,” says the appeal of the We Are Near group. “And how many more fathers of disabled children must die for this unprotected category of citizens heard? The activists ask the President and the Ministry of Defense to adopt amendments to the law on mobilization and remind that “there are not so many fathers who have not run away from families where there is a disabled child.”

Elena Klochko, chairman of the VORDI council, claims that after the announcement of partial mobilization on September 21, the organization received about 10,000 appeals and consulted about 1,000 people. According to Ms. Klochko, in some families that received legal support, the men were not mobilized, and some of the fathers, up to 30 people, were returned. Now, says Elena Klochko, people continue to apply “preventively, in anticipation of a new wave of mobilization.” The community of parents of children with disabilities is “looking forward” to the change in the law, she said.

Kommersant failed to contact members of the State Duma Committee on Defense. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at the time of publication also did not respond to the request.

The leader of A Just Russia – For the Truth, Sergei Mironov, told Kommersant that he receives “hundreds of requests” on such issues from citizens through his Internet reception. “At the moment, we are waiting for the reaction of the relevant committees and the speedy consideration of our initiatives,” the deputy said. “Of course, we count on their positive assessment. If they are not supported, we will continue to seek and will certainly achieve their adoption.”

Nina Ostanina, referring to a conversation with the head of the Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said that the position of the Ministry of Defense, which previously “slowed down” the adoption of the bills in question, has changed. The department, she said, is ready to support at least three amendments proposed by deputies. “Deferment proposals have been approved for all fathers of disabled children and for the only children of retired single parents. The number of children eligible for draft reservations will not change – four, but the government agreed to raise the age of the oldest child from 16 to 18 years old, ”said Ms. Ostanina.

Natalia Kostarnova