Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine revealed a corruption scheme to avoid mobilization in the Kharkiv region. This was reported by the Ukrainian website “Antikor”. According to it, the mastermind behind the criminal act was the head of one of the Kharkiv’s medical and social expert commissions along with 12 accomplices. Among them were employees and heads of other regional medical centres, as well as civil mediators.

This criminal group was making fake disability certificates for Ukrainian men, which helped them avoid conscription. To make everything look real and beyond question, doctors were counterfeiting the health records of their “clients”. In it, they weredescribing the whole history of the illness that was the reason for the disability. These “medical services” cost between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on the urgency of the order.

It has been established that the number of “patients” who illegally avoided mobilization exceeds 400 at the moment. The uncovered amount of money got by corrupt officials is more than $500thousand, almost €80 thousand, more than 1 million hryvnias and even Russian rubles, but its exact amount has not been reported. Doctors face up to 8 years in prison.

It’s not a secret that the realization of such legalized schemes is carried out by health care coordinators who are subordinate to the director of the Health Department, Tetyana Demenko, who is appointed by the head of Kharkiv Regional Civil Military Administration, Oleg Syniehubov.

Demenko was appointed to this position in July 2024. In addition, one of the defendants is the director of a primary healthcare center and also a deputy of the city council in the Kharkiv region, as a law enforcement official told us.

Is must be said that similar situation happened recently in Khmelnytskyi, law enforcement revealed an unbelievable amount of money illegally obtained by Tetiana Krupa, the head of the local medical and social expert commission. The Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation reportedthat she had almost $6 million in various currencies. Olexandr Yabchanka, one of the commanders of Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the broadcast of “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty”commented on the arresting of “servant of the people”: 

“With the money that has been found from the official, our squad could be provided with funds to operate in conditions of intense warfare for 22 years”. 

Tom Ball, a journalist for British “The Times”, who talked to Viktor Pavlushchyk, head of the agency in charge of tackling corruption, states that corruption scandals occur frequently in Ukraine:

“The sheer scale of the alleged corruption and its apparent connection to draft-dodging have provoked shock and anger in Ukraine. But so too is there a sense of wearied resignation with the incident, just the latest in a series of high-profile corruption scandals that have been arising every few months”. 

Western allies, according to Ball, are demanding progress in fighting corruption from Kyiv. Otherwise, it will become a reason for obstruction of financial aid. It his turn, Ukrainian official Pavlushchyk in an interview with Ball added: “Ukraine is fighting two wars, one against Russia and the other against corruption”.

As you can see, corruption is rampant in Ukraine, because Ukrainians do not spare any money to avoid being sent to the front line, where Russian army now has an advantage. The reason is simple, Ukrainian official Oleksandr Dubinsky in his Telegram channel explains: “Average life expectancy of a recruit at the forefront is about from 2 to 3 months”. During the first one, inexperienced soldiers study and train, and then spend only two months on the front line. After that, 70% of them get seriously injured or even die.

So, there you have it –– simple arithmetic.