The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have blocked eleven new schemes to evade mobilisation and detained the organisers, who were operating in various regions of Ukraine.

For sums ranging from USD 3,500 to 37,000, the organisers offered conscripts the chance to evade conscription through forged documents or helped them illegally cross the border.

In the Kyiv region, seven intermediaries were exposed. They were registering draft dodgers for fictitious ‘inpatient treatment’, after which they issued them with forged certificates of disability of Groups II and III.

According to the investigation, those involved in the scheme included local doctors, the head of the Expert team assessing a person’s daily functioning at a Kyiv hospital, a former doctor in the social assessment department of the Central Military Medical Commission, and the former head of a district Territorial Recruitment Centre.

In the Khmelnytskyi region, the SSU Counterintelligence exposed the head of the human resources department at a local university who, together with her son, had been fictitiously employing conscripts as assistants and laboratory technicians.

In this way, men of conscription age were granted the right to a deferment from mobilisation and, for an additional fee, were able to travel abroad under the pretext of a ‘work trip’.

It has been established that the official’s son personally took advantage of the criminal scheme and left Ukraine illegally. His extradition is currently underway.

In Kharkiv, the head of one of the specialist departments at a military hospital was exposed for offering serving military personnel discharge from service on medical grounds.

To this end, the suspect planned to enlist the help of colleagues he knew – members of the Military Medical Commission.

In the Lviv region, three individuals have been exposed for their involvement in a scheme to fraudulently secure disability status for 18 conscripts. Those involved in the scheme include a businessman, an employee of a municipal enterprise and a doctor.

Also in the region, a Lviv resident was detained who, for USD 8,000, promised to organise a man’s escape abroad via forest routes, crossing the border illegally.

In the Vinnytsia region, a local businesswoman was notified of suspicion for selling fake medical certificates to draft dodgers to enable them to be ‘discharged’ from military registration.

The law enforcement team caught her red-handed whilst she was receiving money from a ‘client’ at a local car market.

In the Kirovohrad region, a woman was declared suspect for offering a ‘clent’, in exchange for USD 10,000, to arrange a fictitious paternity claim for her newborn child and obtain documents certifying him as a parent of multiple children.

He subsequently hoped to use the forged documents to leave the country illegally. However, the SSU prevented this.

In Rivne, a mobilisation specialist at a strategic enterprise was exposed for ‘reserving’ conscripts by falsely registering them as employees of the company.

On this basis, the draft dodgers updated their records at the Territorial Recruitment Centre to obtain deferrals from conscription.

In the Zakarpattia region, three traffickers were detained for smuggling draft dodgers across the Tisa River by swimming.

One of those detained was a taxi driver; the other two were residents of the Rakhiv district.

In Bukovyna, three local unemployed men were exposed for organising the transfer of conscripts to the EU. Two of the suspects were detained whilst attempting to drive a ‘client’ to the border in their car.

The third suspect was outside Ukraine at the time, from where he was to remotely guide ‘clients’ as they crossed mountainous terrain.

In the Cherkasy region, two managers of a regional cultural and arts institution have been placed under suspicion of fictitiously employing draft dodgers at the institution with a view to their subsequent reservation from military service.

In return, the newly appointed ‘employees’ were required to hand over their monthly wages to the organisers.

The individuals involved have now been notified of suspicion against them in accordance with the offences committed under the Articles of the CCU:

• 27.5, 28.2, 114-1.1 (aiding and abetting the obstruction of the lawful activities of the AFU, during a state of emergency, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 332.3 (illegal smuggling of persons across the state border of Ukraine);
• 28.2, 369-2.3 (abuse of influence, combined with the extortion of an unlawful benefit, committed by a group, by prior conspiracy);
• 191.5 (misappropriation, embezzlement or acquisition of property through abuse of official position, on a particularly large scale or by an organised group);
• 354.3 (bribery);
• 358.4 (use of a document known to be forged);
• 366.1 (forgery in office;
• 209.1 (money laundering).

The perpetrators face up to 12 years’ imprisonment and confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutors’ Offices.