The SSU has blocked new mobilization evasion schemes used by men of conscription age to illegally leave Ukraine.

7 organizers of the schemes were detained in several oblasts of Ukraine. Among them are a foreign taxi driver, a hospital official and a pseudo-activist posing as a ‘fighter against corruption’.

For money, they helped draft evaders hide from conscription outside Ukraine using fake documents or crossing the border outside checkpoints.

The cost of ‘services’ reached USD 7,000, depending on the urgency of departure and the way of the illegal crossing.

Due to the SSU’s prompt response, up to a hundred draft evaders were prevented from illegal departure.

In Chernivtsi:

a local businessman was detained for guiding potential conscripts to a neighbouring country along forest trails.

When talking to his ‘clients’, the individual introduced himself as an ‘advisor to the head of the committee on prevention of corruption in the Armed Forces of Ukraine’.

In this way, he tried to form a trusting relationship and persuade them to flee abroad.

In Cherkasy:

A medical worker of a local hospital was exposed: she offered to conscripts’ wives to ‘buy’ a fictitious disability group.

Using fake medical certificates, the husbands planned to go abroad as accompanying persons.

In Lviv:

The law enforcement detained another organizer of illegal ‘traffic’: a 43-year-old citizen of one of the South Caucasus states, who has been living in Ukraine for a long time. Through intermediaries, the foreigner tried to find people wanting to evade mobilization.

The suspect promised such men to provide fictitious disability pension certificates in exchange for money. With these ‘documents’, the evaders were able to leave Ukraine.

In Vinnytsia region:

Two local residents were detained for using boats to smuggle draft evaders across the border river.

For an additional EUR 1,000, they promised their ‘clients’ to provide documents for further legalization abroad.

In Rivne region:

Another two organizers of illegal migration were apprehended. The offenders acted in tandem: one of them looked for potential draft evaders, the other smuggled them to the EU through the so-called ‘green border’.

Investigations are ongoing. The perpetrators are facing up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out jointly with the National Police under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office.