The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have dismantled nine new schemes to evade mobilisation in several regions of Ukraine.

Following the operations, fifteen organisers of these schemes have been arrested.

In the Kyiv region, a neurologist who was a member of the military medical commission was exposed for selling forged medical documents to draft dodgers, stating that they had ‘serious medical conditions’.

Based on these fictitious diagnoses, he entered false information into medical records, enabling men to obtain certificates of limited fitness for military service and avoid combat roles.

In the Prykarpattia region, the SSU cyber team detained the head of the district Territorial Recruitment Centre and his deputy for entering false information into the electronic register of conscripts.

The suspects have been documented as having mobilised eight draft dodgers ‘on paper’ or removed them from military records in exchange for bribes.

In the Vinnytsia region, two organisers of a scheme involving illegal migration of men to a neighbouring country have been detained.

For USD 20,000, one trafficker transported draft dodgers to the border in his car and provided them with a map showing a route through wooded terrain across the border.

Another suspect, an employee of a state institution, promised to organise the men’s departure to European countries as ‘athletes taking part in international competitions’.

In Zakarpattia, two administrators of a Viber group with nearly 3,500 users were exposed for leaking the locations of mobile teams of law enforcement and Territorial Recruitment Centres, thereby facilitating evasion of conscription.

In the same region, the SSU cyber unit detained three organisers of a channel that facilitated the illegal departure of men of conscription age to the EU.

For USD 6,000, the traffickers provided ‘full support’ for the draft dodgers, taking them from the local railway station to the border zone and then taking them into a neighbouring EU country via pre-arranged routes.

Another suspect identified in Zakarpattia region arranged illegal ‘work trips’ abroad for conscripts under the guise of ‘volunteer work’.

The perpetrator used personal connections among local officials to illegally enter at least 44 potential conscripts into the relevant electronic system.

In the Lviv region, a Dnipro resident was detained for offering men two options for illegal travel abroad. One option involved crossing the river into Moldova, followed by travelling to Romania. The other involved travelling with forged documents through checkpoints to the border zone and crossing into belarus.

In the Odesa region, the SSU Office in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions detained the director of a transport company and two accomplices. They were fictitiously employing draft evaders, reserving them from mobilisation.

The officials then pocketed the wages of the ‘newly arrived’ drivers, who did not turn up for work or carry out any scheduled journeys.

All those involved in the crimes have now been notified of their status as suspects under several Articles of the CCU, according to perpetrators’ actions:

• 368.1, 368.3 (accepting a proposal, promise or receipt of an unlawful benefit as a public official);
• 362.1, 362.3 (unauthorised actions involving information processed in electronic systems);
• 28, 114-1.1 (obstructing the lawful activities of the AFU, during a state of emergency, by a group acting by prior conspiracy or a criminal organisation);
• 332.3 (illegal smuggling of persons across Ukraine’s state border);
• 255.2 (participation in a criminal organisation).

The suspects face up to 12 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

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