Military enlistment officers receive combat veteran status for rear-area 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 (Territorial Recruitment Center) employees themselves described schemes for obtaining combat veteran (UBD) status for rear-area work and “touring” other regions to extort bribes.

The session was held by the commission on investigating possible violations of anti-corruption legislation and the observance of human rights and freedoms during the period of martial law. The commission’s head, member of parliament from “European Solidarity” Oleksiy Honcharenko, established through a dialogue with one of the TCC employees that the latter had received UBD status while serving in the security company of the Pokrovsk Regional TCC and Military Commissariat — that is, in the rear, not at the front.

“I was mobilized in March 2015 and then sent to officer training courses. After receiving my rank, I served in the 53rd Separate Mechanized Brigade 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,” the TCC employee told the commission session.

In addition to the UBD scheme, another practice was uncovered at the session: military enlistment officers from Donetsk region deliberately traveled to Dnipro, where they detained men and released them in exchange for bribes. The operations were carried out without police involvement, and money was accepted onto bank cards and then transferred to each other’s cards.

The scheme operated for several months. The first complaint about such actions was filed as far back as December of the previous year. In July, police detained two employees of the Mariupol Regional TCC on suspicion of extortion and fraud committed during “notification activities” on the territory of Dnipro.

During the dialogue with Honcharenko, the TCC representative was unable to give a precise answer as to when the Donetsk regional TCC stopped conducting activities on the territory of Dnipropetrovsk region.

“At the moment, no. Well, I’m not ready to answer that right now… In fact, some activities were carried out. In the sense that people were offered to voluntarily undergo a military medical commission, so to speak, they were invited by the Mariupol Regional TCC,” the enlistment officer said.

At the previous session of the same commission, violations were identified in Volyn TCCs, whose employees had not served at the front.