A scheme involving a hospital stay for $10,000 was uncovered in the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions

Three businessmen from the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions have been charged. According to law enforcement officials, they issued fictitious Category III disability certificates to men subject to military conscription in exchange for 10,000 U.S. dollars.

This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigations. 

The court ordered the suspects to be held in pretrial detention, with the option of posting bail ranging from 1.9 to 2.1 million hryvnias.

The detainees are charged with receiving unlawful benefits for influencing the decisions of officials, committed as part of a premeditated conspiracy by a group of individuals. They face up to eight years in prison.

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The men were detained in early November 2026 immediately after completing medical paperwork for a client who had been promised assistance in being removed from military registration. The pretrial investigation is currently ongoing. Investigators are identifying other possible participants in the scheme, particularly among doctors and employees of district military registration and enlistment offices and the Social Protection Service. 

According to law enforcement reports, the suspects sought out men who were having problems with their military registration. Subsequently, as noted by the State Bureau of Investigations, they offered to resolve the issue through their connections with medical professionals and officials at territorial recruitment and social support centers. In addition to securing a disability classification, clients were promised that they would not receive draft notices while their documentation was being prepared.

To create the appearance of actual illnesses and construct a plausible medical history, perfectly healthy men were repeatedly sent for inpatient treatment at medical facilities. According to investigators, the suspects intimidated clients who began to hesitate about payment by telling them a story about another client who allegedly refused to pay for the services. According to the intermediaries, this man was immediately drafted and sent to the front lines, without being given the opportunity to seek legal assistance.

Юлія Калабайда