The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have dismantled 10 schemes of mobilization evasion that operated in different regions of Ukraine. All organizers of the schemes have been detained.

The persons who set up these schemes sold fake medical certificates to men liable for military service or organized smuggling abroad bypassing checkpoints.

For example, a lawyer who, together with his accomplices, smuggled over a hundred evaders abroad was served a notice of suspicion. For money, he and his group entered the data of the men into the volunteer organizations lists.

In Bukovyna, the SSU neutralized a criminal group that helped people liable for military service to escape to a neighbouring EU country through mountain trails.

The members of the group gathered their ‘clients’ at an agreed place near the state border and then showed them a hidden route.

In Chernivtsi, a council member from Selyatyn community and two of his accomplices were detained for smuggling conscripts out of Ukraine through forest areas and water bodies.

In Zhytomyr region, the director of a local primary healthcare centre was exposed for selling fake certificates of ‘poor health’ to draft dodgers.

In Kyiv, a group was uncovered, including the commander of a volunteer unit. He helped his ‘clients’ evade mobilization by concluding a fictitious contract with them to serve in the Armed Forces.

In Cherkasy region, a former head of unit in Zvenyhorod Regional Territorial Recruitment Center was detained red-handed for trying to illegally write off a potential conscript from the military register.

A former official of the Military Medical Commission who forged documents on disability for evaders was also detained in the region.

In Vinnytsia region, two schemes were shut down and four local dealers were detained; for money they offered conscripts to flee to a neighbouring country.

In Lviv region, an official of Yavoriv Regional Territorial Recruitment Center was exposed on ‘earning’ money on evaders by forging their records as ‘unfit for service’.

The detained perpetrators were served notices of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU (in accordance with actions each of them committed):

• 114-1.1 (obstruction of lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations);
• 28.3, 332.2, 332.3 (illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine, by an organized group);
• 358.3 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps and forms or use of forged documents, seals, stamps);
• 368.3 (acceptance of an offer, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit by an official);
• 369.3 (offer, promise or giving of an unlawful benefit to an official);
• 369-2.2 (obtaining an unlawful benefit for influencing the decision-making of a person authorized to perform state functions).

The suspects face up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The operations were conducted under the procedural supervision of the prosecutor’s offices.