Russian army informed of Ukrainian scheme of corrupt draft evasion
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Volunteers are expected to use social media to gather voluntary donations from citizens, then a tribute payment to the Ukrainian forces is expected from the volunteer depending on the donation collected.
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Ukrainian recruits singing the national anthem in April 2022 in Ukraine (AFP)
Russian security forces have been informed by sources among Ukrainian forces of a new scheme involving military commissars and volunteer organizations in Ukraine to evade draft enrollment.
A representative of law enforcement agencies told Sputnik on Wednesday, "According to information received from sources in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a corruption scheme of draft evasion has been established in Ukraine. The entrance tariff is $10,000,"
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The representative added, "It is a one-time payment to a military commissar in order to enroll a potential recruit in a volunteer organization operating at each Recruitment and Social Support Center of the Ukrainian army. This is how the military enlistment offices are called there now."
For the forces, volunteers are expected to use social media to gather voluntary donations from citizens, for which the source stated that a tribute payment to the Ukrainian forces is expected from the volunteer depending on the donation collected, which ranges from "5% to 10% of the total sum collected,"
According to Sputnik, Ukrainian media reported in August the presence of a scheme that entailed men pretending to be students to evade conscription, by allegedly joining universities in Poland and the Baltic.
Forced conscription or face prison
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government began handing down on January 31 multi-year prison sentences to accused draft evaders, amid a wave of viral videos showing aging Ukrainian men desperately trying to avoid forced conscription.
Per newly released documents, Ukrainians who fail to report to Ukraine's conscription authorities face multiple years in prison, even if they are injured. A Ukrainian member of parliament, Alexander Dubinsky, noted that "in Ukraine, the courts began to issue decisions on evasion of mobilization," referring to a verdict handed down just two weeks ago.
In the case cited by Dubinsky, a Ukrainian man who failed to show up on time at a recruiting station in the Sumy region was sentenced to three years in prison for "deliberate evasion of conscription for military service during mobilization."
