A National Guard lieutenant colonel was arrested for the second time in six months on bribery charges related to his discharge from service

A lieutenant colonel from one of the National Guard’s regional commands is suspected of accepting an $11,000 bribe in exchange for facilitating a soldier’s discharge from service on medical grounds. This was reported by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense Sector of the Eastern Region.

According to the investigation, in May 2026, the officer demanded money to influence the decisions of officials on the expert team assessing daily performance, which was to serve as the basis for “discharging” the soldier from service.

Law enforcement officers detained the suspect on May 18 in a parking lot near a supermarket in Kharkiv immediately after he received the bribe.

The court remanded the lieutenant colonel into custody with the possibility of posting bail in the amount of 499,200 hryvnias.

The prosecutor’s office noted that this is already the second criminal case against this officer in six months. In January 2026, he was already charged with abuse of influence—at that time, he allegedly demanded 45,000 hryvnias to transfer a servicemember to another unit.

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