Ukraine cracks down on draft-dodging networks, 4 arrested PHOTO

Ukrainian security forces have dismantled several schemes aimed at illegally avoiding military conscription, detaining four organisers in the process, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on January 6.

In Volyn, a truck driver was arrested for offering to smuggle conscripts into the European Union in his lorry.

In the Khmelnytskyi region, two 18-year-olds from Bukovina allegedly organised the movement of draft dodgers along forest trails, bypassing checkpoints. 

In Odesa, the head of a local neurology department was detained for selling falsified disability certificates, exploiting her previous membership in a state medical commission.

The suspects face multiple criminal charges, carrying a maximum sentence of nine years’ imprisonment along with asset confiscation, the SBU said.

By Aghakazim Guliyev