The Security Service of Ukraine, together with the State Bureau of Investigations and the National Police, has uncovered and dismantled seven new schemes for evading mobilisation in several regions of Ukraine. The organisers of the schemes have been detained.

For bribes of up to USD 13,000, they offered conscripts assistance in evading military service using forged documents or facilitated illegal crossings of the state border outside official checkpoints.

The cases include:

• Zakarpattia region: The head of a municipal water utility was exposed for fictitiously employing draft evaders and unlawfully ‘reserving’ them from mobilisation. One of his ‘clients’ successfully left Ukraine. Among those fictitiously employed was a former deputy of the banned party of regions, who was appointed ‘head of the legal department’ of the municipal institution and granted a deferment.
• Lviv region: Two local residents were detained for organising the illegal transfer of conscripts to the EU via mountain trails. The so-called ‘package of service’ included route maps and wire cutters to breach border fencing.
• Vinnytsia region: A local official from a regional institution and the commandant of a medical college were exposed for using their connections with doctors to unlawfully issue disability certificates, enabling evaders to be removed from military registration.
• Kharkiv: The SSU and SBI detained a 63-year-old law enforcement official who offered to remove conscripts from the Territorial Recruitment Centre’s wanted list in exchange for money.
• Poltava region: A psychiatrist who is a member of a Military Medical Commission, together with his ‘client’, was caught while attempting to bribe another doctor to forge a certificate confirming a serious illness.
• Dnipropetrovsk region: A local draft evader was served a notice of suspicion for leaking the geolocation of Territorial Recruitment Centres’ teams to Telegram chat groups and publicly calling for mobilisation evasion.
• Odesa region: A military official was exposed for promising active-duty servicemen transfers to rear units with subsequent dismissal on health grounds in exchange for bribes.

The crimes were documented by the SSU Military Counterintelligence in cooperation with the National Police. The suspects were detained immediately after receiving the full amount of the illegal benefits.

All detained persons have been notified of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU, according to the offences committed:

• 114-1.1 – obstruction of the lawful activities of the AFU, during a special period;
• 191.4 – misappropriation of property through abuse of official position;
• 332.3 – illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine;
• 369.3 – offering, promising, or providing unlawful benefits to an official, by a group, upon prior conspiracy;
• 369-2.2 – abuse of influence.

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

The operational and investigative actions were carried out by the SSU regional offices under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutors’ Offices.