Ukrainian MPs organized a scheme to smuggle draft-eligible men abroad as their drivers

Ukrainian Members of Parliament have been involved in illegally transporting dozens of draft-eligible men out of the country.

This was revealed by Solomiya Bobrovska, a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence (Golos party), during a briefing in the parliamentary corridors. She was commenting on the recent changes to travel regulations for artists and journalists.

“For MPs, this was all done through drivers. I just found out that we [lawmakers] are allowed to have personal drivers who can travel abroad with us. That’s great to know! As it turns out, my colleagues have used this loophole to smuggle dozens of people,” Bobrovska said.

She added that these draft-age men never returned to Ukraine. However, she did not disclose the names of the MPs involved in the scheme.

In summer 2023, Ukraine’s Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) charged Ludmila Marchenko, a Member of Parliament from the Servant of the Peopleparty, with accepting bribes to help draft-eligible men cross the border illegally.

Local officials have also been involved in such schemes. Last year, the Deputy Head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes to help men evade mobilization. Investigators found that, for a $5,000 bribe, she facilitated the inclusion of men in the “Shlyakh” system, which allowed them to leave Ukraine under the guise of being humanitarian aid drivers working for charitable organizations.