The Security Service, in collaboration with the National Police, has uncovered nine new schemes to evade mobilisation in several regions of Ukraine and detained ten organisers.

For sums of up to USD 21,000, the perpetrators sold fictitious medical documents to those liable for military service, helped them obtain illegal deferrals from mobilisation, and organised the illegal smuggling of draft dodgers across the state border.

In the Poltava region, two schemes to evade conscription based on forged medical certificates were uncovered at once.

One of the organisers turned out to be a lawyer from the Poltava Regional Bar Association. He enlisted the help of a family doctor he knew, who issued forged medical certificates with ‘serious diagnoses’ to those evading conscription.

In addition, a neurologist and the head of one of the departments at a local hospital were detained; they had been selling fictitious certificates to conscripts, which were subsequently used to establish disability categories.

The suspects also accessed the electronic healthcare system without authorisation and entered false information into it regarding the results of medical examinations that had not actually taken place.

In Dnipro, a lawyer was exposed for selling fictitious certificates of Group III disability to draft dodgers. He used his personal connections within the military medical commission.

The fraudster subsequently entered false data into the electronic registers, which allowed his ‘clients’ to automatically extend their deferment from conscription via the Reserve+ mobile app.

Also in Dnipro, an unemployed man was detained for helping draft dodgers obtain documents certifying their alleged unfitness for service, leading to their subsequent ‘removal’ from military records.

To operate the scheme, the perpetrator used relatives of his who work in medical institutions in Kyiv.

In Donetsk region, the SSU Counterintelligence exposed the organiser of an illegal scheme to smuggle draft dodgers across the border into the EU.

The suspect recruited potential ‘clients’ through his acquaintances and transported them to western regions in his own car.

The draft evaders were then accompanied by his accomplices, who showed them escape routes across forested terrain to bypass checkpoints and cross the border.

In the Zhytomyr region, a cardiologist from Berdychiv was detained for unjustifiably admitting conscripts for inpatient treatment in order to provide them with a formal excuse for failing to report to the Territorial recruitment Centre after receiving their call-up papers. To carry out this scheme, the doctor entered knowingly false information into the electronic healthcare system.

In the Cherkasy region, a bomb disposal expert from the State Emergency Service’s special-purpose emergency rescue unit was exposed for taking bribes to falsely employ conscripts in civil defence agencies.

To this end, the official promised ‘clients’ that he would influence staff in the personnel department to arrange for draft-dodgers to be fictitiously employed by a state institution, thereby ‘exempting’ them from mobilisation.

In the Vinnytsia region, a cleric from a religious community of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was exposed for helping conscription-age individuals evade mobilisation in exchange for a payment of USD 14,000.

Using his personal connections within the Territorial Recruitment Centre, the cleric guaranteed the evaders that he would ‘sort out the matter’ regarding their illegal evasion of conscription.

In the Lviv region, a fraudster was arrested who, in exchange for money, promised those liable for military service admission to a local college in order to obtain a deferment from mobilisation. He claimed he would assist with enrolment and the processing of documents at the Territorial Recruitment Centre.

During searches of the detainees’ homes, workplaces and vehicles, mobile phones, medical records, bank cards and draft notes containing evidence of their unlawful activities were seized.

The persons involved have now been notified of suspicion in accordance with the offences committed, under several Articles of the CCU:

• 114-1.1 (obstruction of the lawful activities of the AFU and other military formations);
• 332.3 (illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine);
• 354.3 (receipt of an unlawful benefit by an employee of an enterprise);
• 358.3 (forgery of documents);
• 362.1, 362.3 (unauthorised actions involving information processed in electronic systems);
• 369-2.3 (abuse of influence).

The suspects face up to 9 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out by the SSU Offices in the Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, jointly with the National Police, under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Offices.