The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have thwarted seven schemes aimed at evading military service and mobilisation, detaining ten organisers in several regions of Ukraine.

In the Odesa region, the SSU Military Counterintelligence exposed two employees of the district Territorial Recruitment Centre.

One of the suspects is the acting deputy head of the office, who arranged for false information about conscripts to be entered into the Oberih system in return for USD 3,500.

The other suspect was a private in the same unit who promised draft dodgers that he would influence the management of the high-security facility to ‘remove’ them from the military register in return for money.

Both perpetrators were caught red-handed while accepting illicit payments.

In the Donetsk region, a member of one of the town councils who holds the post of chair of the medical advisory commission for a frontline community was exposed for organising a draft dodging scheme.

The investigation revealed that the suspect helped individuals liable for military service to obtain various categories of fictitious disability, thereby securing a deferral from mobilisation, for a sum of USD 7,000.

In the Poltava region, an official of the regional Territorial Recruitment Centre was detained for organising a criminal scheme to mobilise conscripts for rear posts.

In exchange for bribes, he helped men fabricate fictitious medical histories, enabling them to be classified as fit for service in military units while avoiding deployment to the front line.

In the Cherkasy region, the SSU thwarted the subversive activities of at least five administrators of Telegram channels and Viber groups. These individuals were leaking information on the locations and routes of movement of mobile law enforcement and TRC units in the Uman and Cherkasy districts.

Among those arrested were three women who ran a Viber group and had grown its audience to over 3,000 users.

In Zakarpattia, another organiser of a scheme to illegally smuggle men of conscription age across the state border has been detained.

In exchange for USD 15,000, the trafficker drove ‘clients’ to the border in his own car and provided them with escape routes to an EU country neighbouring Ukraine, bypassing checkpoints.

SSU investigators have notified all those involved in the offences that they are suspected under the Articles of the CCU:

• 114-1.1 (obstructing the lawful activities of the AFU, during special period);
• 369-2.3 (abuse of influence);
• 332.3 (illegally smuggling people across Ukraine’s state border).

The perpetrators face up to nine years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

The operations were carried out under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Offices.