The Security Service and the National Police have blocked six new schemes for mobilisation evasion, detaining the organisers operating in the Kyiv and Mykolaiv regions.

For sums ranging from USD 4,000 to 37,000, the organisers offered conscripts the chance to dodge conscription by providing them with forged documents or helping them to flee from the country.

In Kyiv, a local resident and his accomplice have been declared suspects for selling fake birth certificates to evaders, enabling them to claim parental status for multiple children.

It has been established that conscripts intended to obtain a deferment from conscription in this way and later leave Ukraine.

They were caught red-handed when they received part of the money from a ‘client’ in one of the capital’s cafés.

In Vyshhorod, a state-owned waterways company official was exposed for ‘hiring’ draft dodgers in exchange for bribes.

As well as receiving bribes, he pocketed the monthly salaries of the ‘new’ employees who never showed up at the state institution.

In the Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv, a lawyer was exposed for offering to help draft dodgers falsely obtain Group II disability status.

The perpetrator promised to influence members of the Expert Panel assessing a person’s daily functioning to this end.

In Bila Tserkva, a district Territorial Recruitment Centre employee was declared suspect. In exchange for money, he arranged the transfer of conscripts to rear units and subsequently ‘discharged’ from service on health grounds.

In the same region, another organiser and his accomplice were exposed for selling draft dodgers fake medical certificates with serious diagnoses and offering ‘reservation’ at critical enterprises.

In addition, the suspects offered a third type of ‘assistance’: organising an escape to a neighbouring EU country by bypassing border checkpoints.

In Mykolaiv, a lawyer has been notified of suspicion for helping draft dodgers to be removed from the wanted list and military register by claiming a fictitious disability. To this end, she planned to use her personal connections within the local Military Medical Commission.

The individuals behind these schemes have now been notified of their status as suspects under the Articles of the CCU, according to the offences committed:

• 114-1.1 (obstructing the lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations, during a special period);
• 332.3 (illegal transportation of persons across Ukraine's state border);
• 358.3 (forgery of documents, seals, stamps or forms, or the sale or use of forged documents, seals or stamps);
• 368.3 (accepting an offer, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit as a public official);
• 369-2.2, 369-2.3 (abuse of influence).

The perpetrators face up to 10 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The SSU carried out the operations under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Offices.