SSU and National Police expose 11 more "draft evasion schemes" in different regions of Ukraine. PHOTOS
Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have shut down 11 new schemes for evading mobilisation and detained the organisers of the schemes, who operated in different regions of Ukraine.
For amounts ranging from $3,500 to $37,000, the perpetrators offered men liable for military service ways to avoid conscription through forged documents or helped them flee abroad outside official checkpoints, Censor.NET reports.
Details
In the Kyiv region, seven perpetrators were exposed who arranged fictitious "inpatient treatment" for draft evaders, after which they issued forged conclusions on Group II and Group III disability.
According to the case materials, local doctors, the head of the expert team for assessing a person’s everyday functioning (formerly the Medical and Social Expert Commission), at a Kyiv hospital, a former doctor of the social examination department of the Central Military Medical Commission, and a former head of a district TCR were involved in the scheme.
In the Khmelnytskyi region, the SSU counterintelligence exposed the head of the human resources department of a local university, who, together with her son, fictitiously employed men liable for military service as assistants and laboratory technicians at her higher education institution.
In this way, men of conscription age obtained the right to deferment from mobilisation and, for an additional amount, could travel abroad under the pretext of a "business trip".
It was established that the official’s son personally used the criminal scheme and illegally left Ukraine. The issue of his extradition is currently being resolved.
In Kharkiv, the head of one of the specialised departments of a military hospital was exposed. He offered active servicemen discharge from service on health grounds.
To do this, the suspect planned to involve colleagues he knew who were members of the Military Medical Commission.
In the Lviv region, three perpetrators were exposed as being involved in a scheme to groundlessly issue disability status to 18 men liable for military service. Among the participants in the scheme were an entrepreneur, an employee of a municipal enterprise and a female doctor.
Also in the region, a man from Lviv was detained who, for 8,000 US dollars, promised to organise a client’s escape abroad via routes other than the designated border crossing points.
In the Vinnytsia region, a local businesswoman has been placed under suspicion for selling fake medical certificates to draft dodgers so they could be ‘removed’ from military records.
Law enforcement officers caught her red-handed whilst she was receiving money from a client at a local car market.
In the Kirovohrad region, a woman was notified of suspicion for offering a draft evader, for $10,000, to register fictitious paternity of her newborn child and obtain documents confirming the status of a father of many children. He later hoped to illegally leave the country on the basis of the fake documents. However, SSU officers prevented this.
In Rivne, a mobilisation specialist at a strategic enterprise was exposed for "exempting" men liable for military service through sham employment at the company.
On this basis, those evading conscription updated their records at the Territorial Centre of Recruitment to obtain deferrals from conscription.
In the Zakarpattia region, three traffickers were detained who were smuggling draft dodgers across the Tysa River by swimming.
One of those detained was a taxi driver; the other two were residents of the Rakhiv district.
In Bukovyna, three local unemployed men were exposed for organising the transfer of conscripts to the EU. Two of the suspects were detained whilst attempting to drive a client to the border in their own car.
The third suspect was outside Ukraine at the time, from where he was to remotely guide clients as they crossed mountainous terrain.
In the Cherkasy region, two heads of a regional cultural and arts institution were notified of suspicion. They fictitiously employed draft evaders at the institution with subsequent exemption from mobilisation.
For this, the newly appointed "employees" had to hand over their monthly salaries to the organisers of the scheme.
What are the consequences for those involved?
The suspects have now been notified of the charges against them under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
- aiding in obstructing the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
- illegal transportation of persons across the state border;
- abuse of influence;
- embezzlement and misappropriation of property;
- bribery;
- use of forged documents;
- official forgery;
- money laundering.
The perpetrators face up to 12 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.
