Military enlistment officers receive combat veteran status for rear-line service and travel to other regions to extort bribes

At a session of the temporary parliamentary investigative commission examining possible violations of legislation in the field of defense, TCC employees themselves described schemes for obtaining combat veteran (UBD) status for rear-line work and “touring” other regions to extort bribes.

The session was held by the temporary investigative commission on possible violations of legislation in the field of defense, anti-corruption legislation, and the observance of human rights and freedoms during martial law. In the course of the discussion, the commission’s head, Verkhovna Rada deputy from “European Solidarity” Oleksiy Honcharenko, questioned one of the TCC employees about the circumstances under which he had obtained UBD status.

— Did you receive UBD status under the ATO framework while serving in the 53rd Brigade?
— If my memory serves me correctly, I received UBD status while still serving in the security company of the Pokrovsk RTCC and SP.
— How long have you been serving in the TCC and SP?
— In the Donetsk OTCC and SP since March 2023.
— And before that?
— I was in the Pokrovsk RTCC and SP.
— Do you have UBD status?
— Yes. I was mobilized in March 2015 and then sent to officer training courses. After receiving my rank, I served in the 53rd OMBr, and then left the service. I was invited to work at my home TCC and continued working in the area of moral and psychological training.

At the same session it emerged that military enlistment officers from Donetsk region had deliberately traveled to Dnipro, where they detained men and released them in exchange for bribes. The TCC employees acted without police involvement: money was accepted onto bank cards and then transferred to each other’s cards.

The scheme operated for months — the first complaint about such actions was filed back in December of last year. In July, police detained two employees of the Mariupol RTCC on suspicion of extortion and fraud during “notification activities” they were conducting on the territory of Dnipro.

Honcharenko also put a direct question to the enlistment officer about these trips.

— I want to understand: is the Donetsk regional TCC conducting notification activities on the territory of Dnipropetrovsk region? Yes or no?
— At this point in time, no.
— And from what point did it become no?
— Well, I’m not really prepared to answer that right now… In fact, some activities were conducted. In the sense that people were offered the opportunity to voluntarily undergo a military medical commission — they were, let’s say, invited by the Mariupol RTCC…

This is not the first session of the commission at which violations in the work of the TCC have come to light. Previously, at another session of the same commission, violations were identified in the Volyn TCCs, whose employees had not served at the front. In addition, the ombudsman reported on a new TCC service involving the smuggling of citizens abroad directly from military enlistment officers’ buses.