The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have exposed four new schemes for evading mobilisation and detained the organisers in several regions of Ukraine.

For sums ranging from USD 12,000 to 18,000, the organisers offered men the opportunity to dodge conscription through forged documents or helped them flee abroad outside of checkpoints.

In Kharkiv region, the SSU Military Counterintelligence caught a 57-year-old perpetrator red-handed for selling fake military medical commission conclusions about unsuitability for service due to ‘poor health’.

The fraudster promised draft evaders that he would influence his acquaintances at the military medical commission to issue forged documents and remove them from military records.

In the Lviv region, the SSU Military Counterintelligence exposed a doctor from a local emergency centre for selling fake disability certificates to draft dodgers.

To operate the scheme, the medical worker enlisted the help of acquaintances from the Expert Team for Assessing a Person’s Daily Functioning (formerly MSEC).

Also in Lviv, two residents of the region were detained. For money, they tried to set up a channel to transport draft evaders to the EU in the luggage compartment of a truck.

In Khmelnytskyi region, two individuals were declared suspects for organising transfer of draft evaders to the western border.

To their ‘clients’ they provided instructions on how to escape to a neighboring country, remote escort during the crossing of forest areas on foot, and, if necessary, boats, ladders, or other things for illegal border crossing.

The detainees have been notified of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU, according to the crimes committed:

• 332.3 (illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine);
• 369-2.3 (abuse of influence).

The suspects face up to 9 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out by the SSU Offices in Kharkiv, Lviv, and Khmelnytskyi regions in cooperation with the National Police and the State Border Guard Service under the procedural supervision of Prosecutors’ Offices.