In Odessa, dealers who sold exemptions from mobilization were put on trial

The Kyiv District Court of Odesa handed down a verdict to two men who were profiting from offering exemptions from mobilization. They were sentenced to pay fines.

This is stated in the verdict.

According to the case file, in October 2025, two men learned that an acquaintance of theirs who was of draft age was required to register at the Territorial Recruitment Center (TRC).

<span> </span>The men decided to make money off of this. On November 7, 2025, at a gas station in Odesa, they offered the man their help.

<span> </span>For $2,500, they promised to get him a job at a company critical to the economy and then to influence TCC employees to secure an exemption from mobilization.

In January 2026, the men informed the conscript that the service would now cost $3,000.

Of that amount, $500 was to go to one of them, and the rest to the other, for actually securing the job and influencing the Military Registration and Enlistment Office’s decision.

However, the man who was offered this “assistance” contacted law enforcement. He subsequently acted under police supervision.

The money was handed over under police supervision on January 29, 2026, at one of Odesa’s markets, where the men received the money from the conscript.

One took $2,500, and the other took $500. In total, this amounted to over 128,000 hryvnias. Both were detained that same day.

The court classified the men’s actions as accepting a bribe to influence the decisions of persons authorized to perform state functions, committed by a group of individuals acting in prior conspiracy.

In court, both fully admitted their guilt, expressed remorse, and agreed with the facts of the case. The court took into account their sincere remorse, the absence of prior convictions, as well as the family circumstances of one of the defendants, and sentenced them to fines:

• one of the men—51,000 hryvnias;
• the other—110,500 hryvnias.

The court left the bail condition in effect until the verdict becomes final.

The bail funds paid on behalf of the defendants will be transferred, at the request of the sureties, as a voluntary donation to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.<span>      </span>

Ірина Глухова