The Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation and the National Police have dismantled five new schemes for evasion of mobilisation and military service and detained 12 organisers of these schemes in several regions of Ukraine.

In Kyiv, three fraudsters were detained who, for money, were arranging fictitious disability status for those liable for military service.

To do this, they enlisted the help of doctors they knew, who forged medical records, test results and documents relating to their clients’ hospital treatment.

The law enforcement caught the organisers ‘red-handed’ when they were receiving money in exchange for a fake discharge certificate from the dermatology and venereology department.

In Zaporizhzhia, a trauma surgeon, the head of the rehabilitation department and the head of the X-ray unit were exposed for issuing fake diagnoses of serious illnesses to those evading military service.

According to the investigation, the organiser is currently abroad, from where he sought out ‘clients’ and coordinated the doctors who entered false information into medical records.

In the Vinnytsia region, three traffickers were arrested for setting up a channel for the illegal exit of men of conscription age to a neighbouring country.

The perpetrators used their own vehicles to transport the draft dodgers to the border and instructed them on how to cross the river outside official border crossing points.

In Kherson, the SSU and the SBI exposed a taxi driver who was transporting servicemen, who had gone AWOL from their military units, bypassing checkpoints.

The organiser of the scheme was detained in the Odesa region whilst transporting deserters, whom he had promised to show a ‘back route’ to escape to the European Union.

In the Sumy region, two residents of Shostka were exposed for running a Telegram channel that leaked the movement routes of teams of the Territorial Recruitment Centres and the police in the border area.

They received this information from members of the community and then published it, including specific addresses, whilst encouraging evasion of conscription.

All those detained have now been notified of their status as suspects under the Articles of the CCU, depending on their involvement:

• 28.1, 28.2, 114-1.1 (obstruction of the lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations during a state of emergency, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 332.3 (illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine);
• 369-2.1 (abuse of influence);
• 27.5, 408.4 (aiding and abetting desertion, committed under martial law).

The suspects face up to 12 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The organiser of the Zaporizhzhia ‘scheme’ has been notified of the charges in absentia.

The operations were carried out jointly with the internal security units of the State Border Guard Service under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutors’ Offices.