Mass conscription into the army and attempts by many people to buy their way out of service for the third year in a row have not only given rise to scandals in the media, but have also created a whole class of shadow millionaires with fortunes of unknown origin. These people get fantastically rich by helping draft dodgers buy fake disabilities and flee Ukraine using fake documents.
Now the state is trying to restore order in this area. One of these methods is to establish control over the work of the medical expert service, check their conclusions and prevent the mass trade in fake certificates of unfitness to defend the country for health reasons.
Reform is overdue
As it became known, in the last days of June, the Ministry of Health received a letter from the State Institution “Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” with a request to subordinate the work of MSEC to it and provide control functions with their findings. To substantiate its position, the government agency points out that according to the results of “an audit of the work of MSEC in October-November 2023 and June 2024 in particular, the Institute’s employees processed 12,513 medical expert cases that were seized as part of criminal proceedings. Recent inspections have shown a large proportion of incorrect expert decisions, in Ukraine as a whole in 27.65% of cases, and in some regions - up to 80% of cases.”
In its appeal to the Ministry of Health, the State Institution “Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” asks to subordinate the State Institution “Central Medical and Social Expert Commission of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” to eliminate these problems due to “shortcomings of the medical expert service in recent times, the presence of criminal proceedings in the medical expert service of Ukraine, the lack of experienced, powerful, highly qualified scientific and practical potential medical staff, lack of modern equipment for medical examination. Other results of this reassignment include helping people - simplifying access for military and civilians to expert and rehabilitation assistance, shortening the expert route for these patients.
What actually hides behind the screen of supposedly good intentions
Such a change in the work and structure of state control over the work of MSEC could seem like a step towards victory over total corruption in this area. But this would be possible if we lived in an ideal Ukraine, for which our defenders are giving their lives today. But it seems that these administrative somersaults with the reassignment of one institution to another may hide completely different motives, in particular the centralization of the corruption vertical for stamping fake conclusions about unfitness for service for health reasons. To imagine the scale of this corruption, let’s just return to the published figure of 12,513 fake certificates recorded - we all understand that this is a drop in the ocean. We are talking about bribes worth thousands of dollars for each such certificate. A simple calculation shows that the result of this total medical fraud throughout the country is tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, which end up in the pockets of dishonest doctors.
Now the state is trying to launch a total check of all previously issued MSEC certificates. It would seem that the intention is good. But on the other hand, new corruption risks are too clearly visible behind it, which can be created by the subordination of the State Institution “Central Medical and Social Expert Commission of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” to the “Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine”.
The questionable fortune and luxurious lifestyle of the future “controller” of MSECs
When delving deeper into the topic of the new reform, attention is first drawn to the personality of the head of the State Institution “Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine” Alla Kirichenko. After all, it is her signature that is on the request to the Ministry of Health to subordinate the MSEC system to her.
But even a cursory study of this personality raises many questions and warnings. For example, in her chronicle on the social network Facebook, Alla Grigorievna willingly shares information about helping the military and charity fundraisers - certainly a necessary thing when Ukrainians donate funds to help defenders. But the participation of this official takes on the characteristics of a certain hypocrisy if you pay attention to the details of her wardrobe, each of which, with its cost, could cover more than one charity fundraiser.
So, on April 9, 2024, Alla Kirichenko boasted of her appearance at an event to restore dance and movement rehabilitation for patients with Parkinson’s disease. In one of the “report photos” from this event, you can see a little remarkable detail of her wardrobe - a Gucci leather belt worth more than 30 thousand hryvnia.
Another puncture of Alla Kirichenko is contained in her Facebook chronicle at another public event for initiation into intern doctors. In particular, in one of the photos, next to the priest and students-future interns, the feet of the head of the state medical institute are shod in Italian sandals for 950 euros from Valentino Garavani.
And the “cherry on the cake” in the context of the official’s penchant for luxury are the pearls from DIOR, which Alla Kirichenko boasts of along with a certificate from the Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko on the official website of the institute she heads.
In this photo, Alla Kirichenko appeared wearing jewelry, the price tag of which on the official DIOR website is $830.
Obviously, the letter was actually signed by the Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko - apparently, he highly values such “specialists” in medicine. Or is it time to reassess their value, which de facto consists of DIORs, LEXUSs, Gucci, Valentino Garavani and other brand virtues.
I would like to believe in the honesty of government medical officials, so the thought may creep in: “Well, the woman bought herself a “replica” (a cheap copy of the original jewelry - Ed.) so that she wouldn’t be ashamed to go out in public!” But the owner of a LEXUS RX 350, three apartments with a total area of more than 220 square meters and two houses with a total area of almost 320 square meters is unlikely to buy fakes. We find all this luxury in the official declaration of Alla Kirichenko, which still does not shed any light on her condition and their origin, but raises even more questions about the origin of this condition.
As evidenced by Alla Kirichenko’s declaration for 2022, all apartments of “unknown value” became her property on one day - July 26, 2021. The careless completion of a document mandatory for government officials and heads of government agencies attracts attention. Either a mistake, or a deliberate concealment of the origin of money and methods of legalization - the anti-corruption authorities must deal with this.
Despite the large expenses to support a luxurious wealthy lifestyle, Alla Kirichenko has significant savings: in her declaration for 2023, she indicates the amount of cash she keeps at home - $132,000 (+12,000 to the data from the declaration for 2022), 40,000 euro (the figure remains unchanged in the declarations for 2022 and 2023), and cash hryvnia in the amount 927,853 thousand UAH (+70,353 thousand UAH to the data from the declaration for 2022). Ms. Kirichenko has another more than 400 thousand UAH in bank accounts.
Moreover, being a fairly wealthy person, she, as it turns out, does not hesitate to receive a pension, which she indicated in her declaration in the amount of 168,700 thousand UAH - more than 14 thousand UAH monthly.
Criminal cases for facilitating illegal migration
The reported savings and expensive purchases do not at all coincide with the declared income, so the sources of the official’s funds should attract the attention of anti-corruption structures. As well as expensive acquisitions, which may indicate attempts to launder dubious funds - let law enforcement officers deal with this.
Although Alla Kirichenko could already attract their attention earlier, working in the city of Dnepr in a certain rather scandalous private higher educational institution, the Dnepropetrovsk Medical Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine. What and how they taught there is a separate question, because the board of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine regularly included this educational institution in the lists of violators, and the university ended up on the list next to educational institutions for revocation of licenses for dubious educational activities.
As it turned out later, education was not the main activity of this institution in the Dnieper. As law enforcement officers found out, his main shadow profile was the illegal legalization of foreigners on the territory of Ukraine through a scheme for supposedly obtaining an education. First, a loud scandal broke out, which spread across the national media - 32 foreign students of the Dnieper Medical Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine were accidentally found to have fake passports during an exam in the specialty “Medicine”. Representatives of a third-party structure, the Testing Center, showed vigilance over the documents, destroying the long-term scheme of pseudo-teachers.
Subsequently, law enforcement officers exposed an entire scheme for the illegal legalization of foreigners on the territory of Ukraine, one of the key players in which was the Dnieper Medical Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine, in which the above-mentioned Alla Kirichenko worked in senior positions at the time of the criminal transactions.
Law enforcement officers established that a whole system of illegal migration had been established in Dnipro: foreigners were issued invitations to study and accepted into the city’s universities, and then they were transferred to study at this university, which became a real legal haven for pseudo-illegal students.
The regional department of the Security Service was even involved in the case, which was conducted by the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office within the framework of criminal proceedings No. 22021040000000079 dated August 19, 2021. It turned out that more than just illegal immigrants who could sell jeans in local markets passed through “Alla Kirichenko’s Higher House”.
From the court materials it follows that the Dnepr educational institution with a dubious reputation has become a transshipment point for extremists, terrorists and even dirty money: “According to the message of the Main Inspectorate of the ZND of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Dnepropetrovsk region, persons from among the residents of Ukraine organized a stable channel for the illegal migration of immigrants from African countries and countries of the Middle East. At the same time, part of the funds received from these illegal activities is transferred to finance Islamic terrorist and religious extremist organizations. According to available operational information, representatives of international terrorist and religious extremist organizations are selecting candidates for study in higher educational institutions of foreign countries, in particular those located on the territory of Ukraine, with the aim of obtaining skills and abilities that will later, after the citizen’s return to the country origin, are used to assist relevant international terrorist and religious extremist organizations,” the court documents on criminal proceedings say.
By a strange coincidence, Alla Kirichenko’s rapid enrichment coincides precisely with the period of her work in this institution. By the way, at the same time we purchased a top-end Lexus and three apartments for fabulous money.
Kirichenko’s professional biography contains a number of strange coincidences. For example, the fact that she hastily left the educational institution, which attracted the attention of law enforcement officers and the SBU. And now I have found a new place in Kyiv to use my talents at the Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Problems of Disability of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
It is also strange that neither in 2022 nor in 2023 did her surprising and confusing declarations attract attention before (or after) her appointment to a responsible position in the Ministry of Health.
Perhaps the bet is that a certain “criminal talent” of a person will go unnoticed, because now we are talking about transferring control over MSECs, where potentially tens and hundreds of millions of bribes are circulating.
Thus, in her appeal to the Ministry of Health, Kirichenko asks, in fact, to make her the head of the national network of currently corrupt MSECs with the functions of control and audit, verification and appeal of their findings.
If such a scheme is implemented under the leadership of such an “experienced specialist,” as seen above, the MSEC system can turn into a powerful corruption vertical for the centralized collection of hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from money evaders.
