SBU exposes six draft evasion schemes: 15 organizers detained

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), together with the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) and the National Police, has exposed six new mobilization evasion schemes in various regions of the country. As a result of the joint operations, 15 organizers have been detained.

According to the SBU, the organizers helped draft-eligible men avoid conscription for money, using fictitious employment, document forgery, false medical certificates, and illegal border crossings.

In Sumy Oblast, law enforcement dismantled an interregional scheme in which draft-eligible men were registered as teachers at a fictitious private educational institution. Such employment entitled clients to a deferment from mobilization. According to the security service, more than 200 draft-eligible men used the scheme. Eight organizers were detained, including the director of the fictitious institution.

In Kharkiv, a lawyer was exposed who, in exchange for bribes, arranged the employment of draft-eligible men at a critical infrastructure enterprise. The fictitious employees never appeared at their workplaces, and forged employment record books were used to obtain deferments.

In Rivne, a representative of an expert team for assessing a person’s daily functioning — the body that replaced the MSEK medical and social expert commission — was detained. According to investigators, he and his accomplices falsified the medical histories of conscripts in order to issue them documents declaring them unfit for service and to unlawfully assign them third-group disability status.

In Cherkasy Oblast, a man was detained who helped draft-eligible men obtain guardian status for money. To do so, according to investigators, he enlisted acquaintances among officials of military medical commissions (VLK), who forged medical certificates attesting to relatives’ need for constant care.

In Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, the SBU and SBI exposed three individuals who were smuggling men into a neighboring European Union country. The route passed through mountainous terrain, bypassing border checkpoints.

In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a blogger from the Samarovsky district was detained. According to law enforcement, he published the locations and movement routes of mobile TCC (Territorial Recruitment Center) groups and law enforcement officers on his own Telegram channel. The channel had an audience of more than 1,500 users.

All those implicated have been notified of suspicion under articles covering receipt of unlawful benefit, illegal smuggling of people across the state border, and obstruction of the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations. If found guilty, they face up to nine years in prison with confiscation of property.