The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have dismantled five draft-evasion schemes and detained ten individuals involved in organising them across several regions of Ukraine.

For fees ranging from USD 6,000 to 25,000, they offered conscription-age men assistance in evading military service through forged documents or facilitated their illegal departure from Ukraine.

In the Kyiv region, a pediatric surgeon and his brother, who is also a physician, were detained for organising a scheme involving the operation of a fictitious medical facility and the issuance of forged Group II disability certificates to draft evaders.

The suspects enlisted the involvement of the head of a medical institution in the Mykolaiv region, the chief of a neurology department at a local hospital, and an intermediary who facilitated their criminal activities.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the law enforcement exposed a lawyer who promised conscription-age men expedited removal from military registration on the basis of fabricated medical records indicating poor health.

Investigators documented that he threatened a ‘client’ with reporting him to the Territorial Recruitment Centre if the evader failed to pay the full amount demanded.

In Zaporizhzhia, the head of a pharmaceutical company was notified of suspicion of selling forged disability certificates to conscripts seeking to leave the country.

To carry out the scheme, she attempted to use personal connections with officials at medical institutions and with the local expert team assessing an individual’s daily functioning.

In the Khmelnytskyi region, the law enforcers exposed the organiser of an illicit drug lab who was also involved in arranging draft evasion schemes.

According to the investigation, the suspect offered draft evaders transportation in her own vehicle to a gathering point in Odesa and subsequently arranged for their illegal crossing into a neighbouring country through forests.

In the Rivne region, a resident of the Sarny district was detained for smuggling conscription-age men out of Ukraine in cooperation with an accomplice from Kyiv, bypassing official checkpoints.

One of the traffickers was caught red-handed near the state border while receiving payment from ‘clients’. His accomplice was detained at his home.

The suspects have been served notices of suspicion under several Articles of the CCU, including:

• 332.3 – illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine;
• 369-2.3 – acceptance of an unlawful benefit for exerting influence over the decision-making of a person authorised to perform state functions;
• 309.1 – illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, possession, transportation, or transfer of narcotic drugs;
• 313.1 – illegal handling of equipment intended for the manufacture of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues.

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

The operations were conducted under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Offices.