The Security Service and the National Police have dismantled eight new draft evasion schemes and detained 22 organisers in several regions of Ukraine.

For sums ranging from USD 3,500 to 20,000, they offered men a way to evade conscription by providing them with forged documents or helping them to flee from Ukraine.

In the Kyiv region, the deputy director general of the regional psychiatric and narcological hospital and the head of one of its departments were exposed for ‘profiting’ from draft dodgers.

In exchange for bribes, the officials arranged fictitious ‘inpatient treatment’ for potential conscripts and then assigned them disability categories without justification. To find ‘clients’, the suspects enlisted the help of a family doctor they knew.

In Bukovyna, a local couple were exposed for attempting to organise the smuggling of conscripts to a neighbouring EU country by bypassing checkpoints and border crossings.

It was established that the traffickers had enlisted eight other individuals to transport draft dodgers to the border by car and motorcycle, and to assist them in crossing it via forest trails.

Along with the organisers, a law enforcement officer who had been leaking information about the checkpoints along the route was also detained.

In the Cherkasy region, a local woman was arrested for selling fake medical commission reports stating that individuals were unfit for service due to health conditions.

To obtain these forgeries, the suspect enlisted the help of doctors she knew who were members of the local military medical commission.

In the Lviv region, a local businessman and his son were declared suspects for helping draft dodgers obtain fake disability status through their connections with medical staff.

A surgeon was also detained for demanding money in exchange for helping a conscript to extend the validity of his Group III disability status and processing the relevant medical paperwork.

In Vinnytsia, a government agency official was detained for offering to transfer mobilised men to rear units and arrange deferrals from service in exchange for bribes.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two sisters were exposed for selling fake disability certificates to conscripts to help them dodge conscription.

They enlisted the help of doctors from several medical facilities in the region to write serious non-existent diagnoses on the forged documents.

In the Khmelnytskyi region, a 35-year-old local resident assisted evasion of mobilisation. To this end, he sold them forged disability certificates, which he obtained through personal connections at one of the medical facilities.

The organisers of the schemes have been notified of their status as suspects in connection with crimes committed under the Articles of the CCU:

• 28.2, 114-1.1 (obstructing the lawful activities of the AFU, during a special period, by a group, upon prior conspiracy).
• 332.3 (illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine);
• 369-2.2, 369-2.3 (abuse of influence).

The perpetrators face up to nine years in prison with confiscation of property.

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