The Ministry of Defense will conduct internal investigations at all military recruitment centers following the incidents in Odesa
Lieutenant Mstislav Banik, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, held an emergency meeting with the Army Command regarding the scandalous incidents at the Odesa Territorial Recruitment Center and announced large-scale official inspections of territorial recruitment centers across the country. The official emphasized that, in the fifth year of the war, any violence, violation of rights, or humiliation of human dignity is categorically unacceptable.
During the inspections, the agency’s leadership plans to thoroughly investigate all citizen complaints regarding unlawful detention, physical coercion, and other unlawful actions.
According to Mstislav Banik, the events in Odesa once again demonstrate the critical need for a large-scale reform of the TCC system, which involves distributing its functions among other institutions to eliminate the closed loop of registration and mobilization, as well as the creation of comfortable transit hubs with round-the-clock video surveillance. At the same time, the Land Forces Command noted that law enforcement officials have already documented evidence of illegal schemes designed to artificially inflate mobilization figures in Odesa, charged the suspects under several articles of the Criminal Code, and the court has ordered that all suspects be held in pretrial detention without the right to bail.
This was reported by Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Lieutenant Mstislav Banik, on Facebook.
In the Odesa region, law enforcement officers detained a group of employees of the district military registration and enlistment office and their accomplices, who are suspected of kidnapping, unlawful detention, and torture of men in order to artificially “meet mobilization quotas.” According to the investigation, this involves an organized scheme involving violence and intimidation.
Police in Zakarpattia Oblast confirmed that a man was hospitalized with physical injuries after being held at one of the district territorial recruitment and social support centers. The man later died in the hospital.
In the Ternopil region, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Defense Affairs opened a criminal investigation into possible instances of unlawful deprivation of liberty of citizens at the premises of the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center. The investigation was initiated based on the findings of a monitoring visit and materials provided by law enforcement agencies and the Human Rights Commissioner.
