Draft-Dodging Scandal in Ukraine Forces a Top Official to Quit

 

"The prosecutor general stepped down after accusations that hundreds of officials obtained fake disability certificates. There have been no public allegations that he was involved in the scheme.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has resigned amid a draft-dodging scandal in which hundreds of officials, including prosecutors, are accused of obtaining fake disability certificates that allowed them to avoid military service.

The scandal, which emerged earlier this month, was the latest in a series of revelations about draft evasion schemes that have hindered Ukraine’s ability to fill the ranks of its army and damaged public trust.

The prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said he was stepping down to take responsibility for what he described in a statement on Tuesday evening as “the obviously immoral situation with fake disabilities of state officials.” There have been no public allegations that Mr. Kostin was involved in the scheme.

Following an uproar over the scandal, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree on Tuesday ordering the liquidation by the end of the year of all medical commissions that review potential soldiers’ fitness for duty and issue disability certificates.

“There are hundreds of such instances of clearly unjustified disabilities” among officials, Mr. Zelensky said in his nightly address on Tuesday. “All of this needs to be dealt with thoroughly and swiftly.”

Ukraine has struggled to mobilize more troops and bolster its army. That is partly a result of corruption schemes in which potential conscripts bribe enlistment officers or medical workers at recruitment centers in exchange for fake documents exempting them from serving in the military.

Last year, Mr. Zelensky dismissed all of the country’s regional military recruitment chiefs following a major bribery scandal.

Corruption issues have eroded public confidence in Ukraine’s conscription system and the latest scandal, and accusations that it directly benefited top officials, is likely to deepen that distrust and complicate the army’s task to draft more people.

Recent outcries over mobilization tactics, including recruitment officers corralling men at concerts, have added to the discontent. Many soldiers have also voiced frustration with what they see as a deeply unfair system in which some can bribe their way out of service while those at the front cannot be discharged after years of exhausting combat. Last month, a soldier deserted in what he said was an effort to publicize the issue.

Under martial law in Ukraine, men of ages 18 to 60 must remain in the country, report to their local recruitment offices and undergo medical screening for possible service. There are a handful of exemptions, including for being enrolled in a university, having a disability or having at least three children.

The most recent accusations of a draft-dodging scheme came with the arrest this month of the head of the Center for Medical and Social Expertise in the western region of Khmelnytsky. Investigators said they had found nearly $6 million in cash at her home and the homes of several relatives, and released footage showing stacks of bills spread out on a bed.

Ukrainian news media later reported that some 50 prosecutors in the region had been accused of obtaining fake disability certificates from the local medical commission, prompting the office of the general prosecutor to launch an internal investigation in prosecutors’ offices across the country.

Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said on Tuesday that 64 officials from regional medical commissions had been put under investigation on suspicion of participating in corruption schemes this year, with nine already convicted. The agency said it had dismantled criminal groups in at least four regions, uncovering schemes that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit.

More than 4,000 disability certificates that were forged have been canceled, the agency added. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the S.B.U., said in a statement that abuses in medical commissions “have an extremely negative impact on mobilization processes.”" [1]

1. Draft-Dodging Scandal in Ukraine Forces a Top Official to Quit. Constant Méheut.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 23, 2024.