The SBU uncovered seven schemes to evade mobilization and detained 18 organizers
The Security Service of Ukraine, in collaboration with the State Bureau of Investigation and the National Police, has dismantled seven schemes that were operating in various regions of the country. According to the SBU, 18 organizers were helping men subject to military conscription avoid service or illegally leave the country in exchange for money.
In Kyiv, a military unit commander and five of his accomplices were exposed. They falsely enlisted men into the military as riflemen, electricians, and drivers, after which the men were not actually present in the unit. People paid between 20,000 and 50,000 hryvnias per month for this “service.”
In the Chernivtsi region, a Protestant church pastor was detained for organizing illegal border crossings in exchange for 7,500 euros. In the Carpathian region, a TCC employee promised military personnel a transfer to the rear for $6,500 by fabricating health issues.
In the Kherson region, officials fictitiously employed draft evaders for subsequent conscription. They pocketed the salaries of at least 11 such employees, receiving over 1.2 million hryvnias. In the Cherkasy region, members of a medical advisory commission issued fictitious disability certifications to relatives of conscripts, while in the Lviv region, a nurse helped people obtain disability classifications in exchange for money.
Another scheme was uncovered in the Vinnytsia region. Two organizers, one of whom is a foreign national, sought out clients and planned to smuggle them through the Odesa region out of Ukraine, bypassing border checkpoints.
The suspects are charged with a number of crimes, including illegal border crossing, receiving unlawful benefits, official forgery, and obstructing the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Source: Security Service of Ukraine
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