SBU detains former Cabinet official and university staff involved in draft evasion schemes
SBU has dismantled six mobilization evasion schemes across Ukraine (Photo: Press Service of the SBU)
Six draft evasion schemes operating across several oblasts of Ukraine were dismantled, with 14 organizers detained, including a former Cabinet official and university administrators, Ukraine’s Security Service said on Oct. 7.
The Security Service of Ukraine said its cyber specialists in Kyiv exposed a former chief specialist of the Cabinet of Ministers Secretariat and a deputy dean of a Kyiv university. According to the agency, they took money to arrange jobs at the university for men evading mobilization.
In Cherkasy Oblast, the SBU said a university associate professor was charged with removing draft dodgers from the military registry and helping them avoid service using fake medical diagnoses.
“To carry out the scheme, the suspect used her connections among doctors and officials at the enlistment office,” the agency said in a statement.
The SBU also reported uncovering a 27-year-old administrator of a Telegram channel in Oblast who was sharing the geolocations of military enlistment offices in Kaniv district.
In Khmelnytskyi Oblast, security officers detained the head of a psychiatric hospital department, a member of an expert commission assessing individuals’ functional capacity (formerly the medical and social expert commission). According to the SBU, he organized fake hospitalizations for conscripts in exchange for money to issue “unfit for service” status.
The SBU said another criminal group was exposed in Kropyvnytskyi. Its members allegedly transported clients to a border Oblast and then guided them through forest paths, bypassing checkpoints, into a European Union country.
In Zhytomyr, three more suspects were detained. The SBU said they arranged fraudulent medical documents for draft evaders, certifying “poor health” through contacts among doctors and enlistment office officials, allowing them to leave the country.
According to the agency, the suspects charged between $1,500 and $13,000 for their services.
All have been charged under multiple articles of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, including:
Part 5, Article 27; Part 2, Article 28; Part 1, Article 114-1 (aiding and abetting obstruction of lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations by an organized group);
Part 3, Article 332 (illegal border crossing);
Part 3, Article 368 (acceptance of a bribe or illicit benefit by an official);
Part 3, Article 369-2 (abuse of influence).
The offenders face up to 10 years in prison with property confiscation.
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