More than 200 simultaneous searches were carried out in Ukrainian military enlistment centers, in order to counter a system of corruption which would allow conscripts to escape the army, the prosecution announced on Tuesday August 22. “Law enforcement has uncovered large-scale corruption schemes in almost all parts of the country […] Currently, more than 200 simultaneous searches are being conducted,” writes the prosecution on Telegram.
Investigators suspect “the involvement of officials from military enlistment offices, those in charge of medical and social examinations”, he said. According to the investigation, in exchange for bribes, “officials helped citizens to obtain disability certificates or to be recognized as temporarily unfit for service. This allowed them to delay or avoid military service,” the prosecution added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had already dismissed all regional officials responsible for military recruitment in early August, citing in particular a system that allowed conscripts to be smuggled “over the border”.
He called for placing at the head of military recruitment soldiers who fought at the front. At the end of July, the Ukrainian authorities also announced the arrest of a former army commissioner, responsible in particular for mobilization and accused of corruption.
In the 18th month of the Russian invasion of the country, the Ukrainian army, which has also been engaged since the beginning of June in a difficult counter-offensive in the south and east of the country, is keeping its losses secret. The fight against corruption, an endemic evil in Ukraine, which was already one of the poorest countries in Europe before the Russian invasion, is one of the conditions set by the European Union for maintaining the status of candidate from Kyiv.
