A municipal worker and 15 "dead souls": how draft evasion was carried out in Odessa
In Odesa, a court found an official of a municipal enterprise guilty of participating in a scheme to falsely employ people who were effectively evading mobilization through “ghost employees” on the payroll. While a formal sentence has been handed down, he will not actually serve any time—the court imposed a probationary period, according to media reports.
The Primorsky District Court of Odessa approved a plea agreement and found Yuriy Gulla, the head of the production division at the municipal enterprise “ZhKS ‘Porto-Frankivskyi,’” guilty of official crimes related to abuse of office and forgery of official documents. According to the case materials, the scheme operated for over a year—from February 2024 to July 2025—and was quite simple yet systematically structured: the company hired people who never actually showed up for work, performed no duties, and existed only on paper and in timesheets.
This involved 15 people who were listed as mechanics, plumbers, and cleaners, but in reality, it was not they who worked, but only their personal information in the documents, which allowed for the creation of the appearance of official employment.
The investigation established that Gulla acted in collusion with the company’s management and other officials, and the scheme itself allowed for the registration of “employees” to serve as a cover for businessmen who were attempting to evade mobilization procedures. Fictitious data was regularly entered into timesheets, salaries were officially paid, and the company and the state budget suffered losses amounting to approximately 2.5 million hryvnias.
The court found Gulla guilty under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—specifically, abuse of official position as part of a group of persons and official forgery.
He was sentenced to:
- 3 years of imprisonment with a 2-year ban on holding executive positions and a fine of 17,000 UAH
- an additional 1 year of restricted liberty with a 1-year ban on holding certain positions
However, he will not serve actual prison time—pursuant to Article 75 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, he was exempted from serving the principal sentence with a probationary period of 3 years.
During the trial, the defendant fully admitted his guilt, cooperated with the investigation, provided testimony regarding other participants in the scheme, partially compensated for the damages, and even made a charitable donation to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The court considered these circumstances as mitigating factors; however, the ruling does not specify the exact amount of the donation, where it was transferred, or when exactly this occurred.
A gang of repeat offenders was detained in the Carpathian region for robbing a currency exchange office of 9 million hryvnias
As a reminder, a scheme to smuggle men abroad via the TCC was uncovered in Kharkiv.
The SBU detained the head of a medical examination commission in Kropyvnytskyi for selling disability certificates.
Kyiv police dismantled an interregional cocaine distribution network worth 8 million hryvnias.
