The Security Service of Ukraine exposed doctors and military registration and enlistment office employees in Kyiv in a corruption scheme for evading mobilization and illegal travel abroad.
Law enforcement officials exposed the head of a department at one of the diagnostic medical centers in the capital and the official position of the local military registration and enlistment office. Using a bribe, they “helped” those liable for military service to avoid conscription on the basis of fictitious health documents.
To do this, the medical center official sent false conclusions about the health status of the draft dodgers to her accomplices from the local military medical commission. The cost of such “services” was 11 thousand dollars per “patient”.
The defendants distributed the received amounts among themselves. To transfer bribes, officials hired an acquaintance as an intermediary.
During searches at the residence and work addresses of the defendants and in their cars, large sums of funds were found, as well as telephones, stamps and red-handed documents.
Based on the collected evidence, officials of the diagnostic medical center and the military registration and enlistment office, as well as their intermediary, were informed of suspicion under three articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- Part 2 Art. 28 (committing a criminal offense by prior conspiracy by a group of persons);
- Part 1 Art. 114-1 (obstruction of the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations);
- Part 3 Art. 332 (illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine).
All three defendants are being held without bail. An investigation is ongoing to bring to justice all participants in the scheme, in particular the leadership of the military registration and enlistment offices and military medical commissions involved in the case. The perpetrators face up to 9 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Avoidance of mobilization
Mobilization in Ukraine was announced after a large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Recently, martial law and mobilization were extended until at least November 15, 2023.
At the same time, in Ukraine, after the start of mobilization, schemes for the illegal departure of men abroad began to emerge.
At the end of August, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky held a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, during which the issue of military medical commissions and the TCC was raised.
In particular, it was decided to conduct comprehensive audits of the Military Military Commission’s conclusions on disability and unfitness for military service, which were adopted during the period from the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion and may be associated with corruption violations. The president also promised consequences for those who falsified the decision of the IHC.
