A lieutenant colonel whose soldiers repaired his house in exchange for combat pay has been convicted
The Vyzhnytsia District Court of Chernivtsi Oblast handed down a verdict against a lieutenant colonel, the commander of a military unit, who was accused of ordering two subordinate servicemen to repair a private home in Bukovina between June and October 2023. During this period, the soldiers were formally listed as being in eastern Ukraine and illegally received combat pay and financial allowances.
At the hearing, the defendant partially admitted guilt, claiming that his subordinates were repairing equipment for the front lines and that the payments made to them during their absence were “a mistake due to carelessness.”
Following the trial, the court ruled as follows:
It acquitted the lieutenant colonel of the charges of abuse of official position (Art. 364 of the Criminal Code) and official forgery (Art. 366 of the Criminal Code) due to lack of evidence of a criminal offense, and dismissed the prosecutor’s civil claim for 501,000 hryvnias.
Found him guilty of aiding and abetting evasion of military service (Part 4 of Article 409 of the Criminal Code).
The court imposed a sentence pursuant to Article 69 of the Criminal Code (below the minimum threshold): two years of imprisonment, commuted to two years of restriction of official rights, with 20% of his monetary allowance to be deducted and paid to the state treasury.
In rendering its decision, the court took into account the lieutenant colonel’s numerous state and military awards (including the Orders of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 2nd and 3rd classes), his nomination for the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 1st class, his remorse, active cooperation with the investigation, donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and direct participation in combat operations.
According to “Glavkom,” this information is contained in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.
In the Odesa region, more than 80 military personnel built a villa with a swimming pool for their commander.
In the Khmelnytskyi region, the former vice rector of a military academy, for whom subordinates built a summer house, will stand trial.
