Top customs officials were caught in a scheme to trade positions to evade mobilization

On October 15, 2026, law enforcement authorities detained an employee of the Human Resources Department of the State Customs Service of Ukraine as part of a criminal investigation opened in late May into the solicitation and acceptance of bribes.

The investigation established that a group of officials had organized the sale of vacant positions at the Coordination and Monitoring Customs Office, with the subsequent exemption from military conscription. 

The scheme involved the customs office’s leadership—former tax police officers who had decided to pursue careers in customs:

* Mykola Tatarchuk — acting head of the Coordination and Monitoring Customs Office (first deputy chief);
* Oleksandr Yarovyi — deputy chief of the same customs office;
* Hennadiy Melnyk — head of the customs office’s targeting department.

As a result of the investigation by law enforcement agencies, on October 15, an employee of the State Customs Service’s Human Resources Department was detained and simultaneously notified of the charges against him. He was caught accepting money in exchange for hiring an individual to the position of chief state inspector of the Risk Operations Monitoring Division within the Targeting Department.

Searches were conducted at the customs office, during which a cell phone was seized from Mykola Tatarchuk. In addition, it was revealed that a few days before the arrest, on October 9, 2026, Deputy Customs Chief Oleksandr Yarovyi declared the purchase of a new Skoda Kodiaq. He is also known as a connoisseur of undeclared Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Source: Speccor investigative report.

Earlier, Svitlana Yukhta, head of the Customs Valuation Division of the State Customs Service’s Tariff Department, traveled to London and submitted her resignation effective October 1.

Mykhailo Svida, the former head of the Transcarpathian Customs Office, was not convicted of tax evasion. The Uzhhorod City and District Court acquitted him of criminal charges and closed the case after he paid over 7.4 million hryvnias to the state budget.