The Constitutional Court ruled that the arrest of military personnel without an alternative was unlawful

The Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine upheld the complaint filed by military officer and civic activist Serhiy Gnezdilov, ruling that the provision of the Criminal Procedure Code requiring the mandatory detention of military personnel for certain offenses is unconstitutional. 

According to the court’s decision, the provision of Part 8 of Article 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine contradicts the Constitution, as it deprives judges of the ability to choose less severe preventive measures. 

The judges concluded that the automatic imposition of the most severe preventive measure without considering individual circumstances violates the constitutional right to liberty and personal inviolability, and also distorts the essence of justice by undermining judicial discretion. However, to prevent a legal vacuum, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine deferred the repeal of this provision for three months. This legal precedent was the result of a lengthy process that began after Gnezdilov’s high-profile arrest in October 2024 for deserting his unit without authorization in order to draw attention to the lack of clear demobilization deadlines. Although the soldier was exonerated under the new law in January 2025 and returned to duty, the constitutional complaint he filed in the summer of 2025 led to a significant change in the country’s criminal procedure. The full text of the decision will be published on the court’s official website on June 25.

This was reported by the official press service of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in a special clarification of the Senate’s legal position.

As a reminder, we previously reported that in October 2024, officers of the State Bureau of Investigations detained Serhiy Gnezdilov, a serviceman of the 56th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade. In September of that year, he left his military unit without authorization and publicly announced this on social media.

At that time, the court imposed a pretrial measure on soldier Serhiy Gnezdilov. He was held in custody for 60 days without the right to bail.