Ukrainian Rada deputy: TCC employees earn around €859,000 a day in bribes

Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Georgy Mazurashu has stated that employees of territorial recruitment centers (TCCs) earn around $1 million (approximately €859,000) a day in bribes.

He made the statement on the YouTube channel “Superpozitsiya.”

Mazurashu appealed to President Zelensky, urging him to personally intervene in the situation and put an end to what he described as systematic abuses by military commissariat employees.

“I wanted to tell Volodymyr Oleksandrovych [Zelensky] that our shared constituents expect him, as supreme commander-in-chief, to intervene and stop the abuse of some Ukrainians by others who are hiding behind so-called mobilization work. Ukrainians in uniform are abusing civilian Ukrainians. This is unacceptable. I wanted to convey to him that this is critical and that it is the foundation for a massive scheme which, by my modest estimates, amounts to approximately $1 million a day,” the deputy said.

Mazurashu also pointed to the consequences of what is happening for demographics and the return of citizens to their homeland.

“These shameful actions by people in uniform are driving some Ukrainians out of the country and preventing men abroad from returning home,” he added.

The outlet Ekonomichna Pravda previously reported that the annual turnover of bribes in TCCs for draft evasion reaches $2.4 billion (approximately €2.1 billion) per year.

Ukrainian social media regularly features footage of forced mobilization and confrontations between citizens and military commissariat employees in various cities. Due to a shortage of personnel in the army, TCC employees have stepped up raids in public places, while men of conscription age are trying by any means possible to leave the country, often at the risk of their lives.