Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centres (TCK) are not endowed with a law enforcement function and cannot be held administratively liable, but they assist police officers in detaining offenders, said Major Larysa Kozak, Deputy Chief of the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre in the city of Kyiv.

“During administrative detention, employees of the TCK assist police officers in the detention of citizens. Perhaps the current problem occurs since the legislator neither delineated nor detailed what this assistance is like. Of course, I do not mean by this term the use of physical force and methods of physical violence,” she said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Tuesday.

Kozak recalled that legislative acts in Ukraine enshrine the powers of all bodies, including the executive branch, the National Police, district state civil administrations, and village councils, but “for some reason, society has the opinion that notification is only the prerogative and obligation of the TCK.”

“No, it is not. All the law enforcement agencies listed by me, as well as executive authorities, even the heads of enterprises, institutions and organizations, are involved and they are charged with the duty to ensure mobilization,” the TCK employee explained.

Kozak also stressed that TCK employees are not endowed with a law enforcement function and cannot bring citizens to administrative responsibility.

“We impose administrative penalties, issue resolutions on administrative violations, but these are only three articles,” she said, pointing out that police officers have the right to be without employees of the TCK to carry out notification methods, but not to mobilize.

Kozak explained that representatives of the TCK have the right to mobilize those liable for military service, but without the police it is difficult for them to check whether a citizen is wanted and they cannot, accordingly, carry out administrative detention and transportation to the premises of the TCK.

“The National Police authorities, since they are fully involved in the process of searching for citizens who evade the norms of mobilization legislation, identifying them, taking them and bringing them to administrative responsibility, should jointly with the TCK, carry out these activities," she explained.