2023-08-03 14:37:29
A corruption case that is shaking kyiv again. Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities announced on Thursday the arrest in the capital of an armed forces official accused of having helped men to escape military enlistment, in the midst of the Russian invasion.
Attempts to escape the army exist in Ukraine, but are difficult to quantify, the phenomenon being taboo. According to the law, men aged 18 to 60 can be mobilized and are prohibited from leaving the national territory.
“Fictitious documents attesting to their unsuitability for military service”
The State Investigation Bureau (DBR), an anti-corruption body, announced on Thursday that it had “arrested the head of one of the departments of the Ukrainian Army Ground Forces Headquarters, who also holds the position of Chief of one of the military departments of the city of Kyiv”.
He is accused of having “organized an illegal system of passage of men of age to serve in the army through the Ukrainian border”, added the organization on Telegram. Against 10,000 dollars (9,100 euros), men wishing to escape military service received “fictitious documents attesting to their inaptitude for military service”.
“Several cases of issuance of false documents have been documented under the control of the police”, according to the Bureau of Investigation, which says it arrested the suspect in flagrante delicto, when he “handed over documents to three people granting them the right to leave Ukraine”. Searches at his home and at a recruitment center led to the seizure of 48,000 dollars and 5,000 euros, according to the same source.
At the start of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian army benefited from the influx of volunteers wishing to fight, but in the 18th month of the war, losses forced a greater reliance on conscription, according to Ukrainian media.
In January, the authorities adopted a series of measures allowing civil servants and qualified employees working in strategic sectors to be exempted, a measure also intended to limit attempts to evade them illegally.
Attempts to escape military service were already frequent in Ukraine, as in Russia, before the war.
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