The Security Service and the National Police have blocked six new draft evasion schemes and detained the organisers.

For sums ranging from USD 2,000 to USD 20,000, they offered conscripts the chance to evade conscription through forged documents or helped them illegally cross the border.

For example, in Zakarpattia, the SSU Military Counterintelligence, in cooperation with the State Border Guard Service, detained a suspect who had established yet another channel for draft dodgers to flee to the European Union.

He organized a ‘convoy’ to transport conscripts across the western border.

As the convoy moved, a ‘scout driver’ would drive ahead first to look for checkpoints along the route. Immediately behind him followed the main vehicle carrying the evaders.

If checkpoints were detected along the route, the ‘passengers’ were dropped off nearby and given maps with instructions on detour routes.

The law enforcement apprehended the organiser of the scheme ‘red-handed’ in the mountainous area of the Rakhiv district while he was transporting three draft dodgers toward the state border.

In Lviv oblast, a psychiatrist at the region’s central hospital was detained for offering to grant conscripts a Group III disability classification in exchange for bribes.

To speed up the processing of medical documents, he promised to influence acquaintances on the expert panel assessing an individual’s daily functioning.

In Dnipropetrovsk region, another organiser was exposed who traded in fictitious conclusions from the Military Medical Commission regarding unfitness for service in combat units.

He promised men who had already been mobilised that he would enlist the help of officials he knew on the Military Medical Commission to forge medical conclusions, leading to their subsequent transfer to rear military units.

In Odesa region, three employees of an emergency medical center were detained for transporting draft dodgers to unrecognized Transnistria in an ambulance.

The law enforcement team detained the suspects while they were transporting a draft evader, disguised as a paramedic, to the neighboring country.

Also in the region, a local farmer was declared suspect for organizing the illegal transportation of conscripts out of Ukraine, bypassing checkpoints.

It was established that he had enlisted a local transport carrier to deliver draft dodgers to border towns, from where they crossed the border on foot via forest trails.

In Vinnytsia, a resident of the capital was detained for organizing a channel for illegal migration out of Ukraine. The draft evaders left for a neighboring country by swimming across the Dniester River.

The perpetrators have been notified of charges under several Articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• 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 under the procedural supervision the Prosecutor’s Offices.