The law, No. 2472 "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine On the overall structure and size of the Security Service of Ukraine," was submitted to parliament by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, 268 deputies out of 368 registered in the session hall on Thursday voted for this decision.
As stated in the explanatory note to the Law, the aims "to ensure there are the forces (staff) required for the implementation by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of tasks assigned to it during the special period from the announcement of mobilization to the moment of the introduction of martial law, or until a decision on demobilization is taken, as well as settling the issue of the size of the Security Service of Ukraine for the period of martial law."
The total number of the SBU officers approved by the law amounts to 27,000 people in general, 31,000 people during a special period, and during the period of martial law an amount stipulated by the mobilization plan of Ukraine for the period.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense Sergiy Pashynskiy noted that currently the size of the SBU is 31,050 people as envisaged by the Law "On the overall structure and size of the Security Service of Ukraine". At the same time, according to him, this law does not define the size of the Security Service of Ukraine in a special period.
Therefore, Pashynskiy explained, there was a need to legally define the total number of the SBU officers during peacetime, in a special period (apart from a period of martial law) and to decide the issue of the size of the SBU during a period of martial law.
