The SSU has shut down another 4 mobilization evasion schemes in several regions of Ukraine.

Among the detained suspects are a Kyiv-based owner of a company that imitated international passenger transportation and an official of the State Emergency Service unit in Kirovohrad region.

For money, the organizers of the channels transported draft evaders to the EU states using fake documents or bypassing checkpoints.

The cost of such ‘services’ reached USD 8,000.

In Kyiv and Ternopil region:

Three perpetrators have been exposed: they sent draft evaders to the EU as drivers of international passenger transport.

The scheme was set up by a 48-year-old Kyiv resident, who purchased a transport company using a fictitious identity.

His accomplice in Ternopil oblast was looking for people wanting to evade conscription. To ensure unimpeded border crossing, their names were entered in advance into the Shliakh information system as drivers on cross-border trips.

Another accomplice accompanied the fake drivers to a foreign destination and returned to Ukraine driving a minibus.

To conceal their activities, the smugglers re-registered and changed their car licence plates every two weeks and tried to always receive money through intermediaries.

In Kropyvnytskyi:

An official of the State Emergency Service unit in Kirovohrad oblast has been detained.

For bribes, he offered potential conscripts employment in the SES, which ‘guaranteed’ their deferral from mobilization.

In Transcarpathia:

Two residents of Tyachiv district took draft evaders to a neighbouring European country by swimming across the border river. The price included a wetsuit.

In Bukovyna:

A resident of Chernivtsi district, an employee of a local construction company, was apprehended for leading men to the EU through forest trails.

The investigations are ongoing. The suspects face up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out jointly with the National Police under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office.