The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have blocked new schemes for evading mobilisation and detained four organisers.

In Volyn, a long-distance driver was exposed for offering conscripts illegal transportation to the EU in the cargo compartment of his vehicle.

The law enforcement detained the perpetrator at a customs post for attempt to smuggle a ‘client’ in a specially equipped hiding place in the truck.

In Khmelnytskyi region, two 18-year-old residents of Bukovyna were apprehended for organising transborder trafficking of conscripts.

They used their own cars to transport the draft evaders from Kamianets-Podilskyi to Chernivtsi region, bypassing checkpoints. The ‘clients’ were then accompanied along forest paths across the border.

In Odesa, the law enforcement agencies uncovered the head of the neuropathology department at a local clinical hospital who was selling fake disability certificates.

To operate the scheme, the official used her membership in the Expert Team for Functional Assessment of a Person (former Medical and Social Expert Commission).

The individuals involved have been notified of suspicion, according to the offences committed, under two Articles of the CCU:

• 332.3 (illegal transportation of persons across the state border);
• 368.3 (acceptance of a proposal, promise or receipt of unlawful benefits by an official).

The investigations are ongoing. The perpetrators face up to 9 years in prison with confiscation of property.

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