Feb. 18, 2026, 5:25 p.m.
(PHOTO: od.npu.gov.ua)
Two residents of Odesa are under investigation for helping to secure employment and reservations at a critical enterprise. They demanded $3,000 for the promise to draw up documents for a military deferment.
This was reported by the press service of the National Police in Odesa region.
In Odesa, law enforcement officers stopped a scheme of illegal enrichment in which two local residents tried to make money by issuing armor for a military deferment.
The men, aged 30 and 49, offered conscripts a guarantee of employment at a critical enterprise where one of them worked and a promise to get a reservation through influence on military TCCs and JVs. For such "services" they demanded USD 3 thousand from one client.
Investigators of Odesa District Police Department No. 1, together with SBU internal security officers, documented the illegal activity. After receiving the money and copies of the conscript's personal documents, law enforcement officers detained the criminals red-handed. During the search, the SBU seized funds, documents and mobile phones that confirmed the facts of influence peddling.
The defendants were served a notice of suspicion under part three of Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property. The court chose custody as a measure of restraint, allowing them to be released on bail in the amount of UAH 116,480 each. Law enforcement is currently investigating all the details, and the pre-trial investigation is ongoing.
Last year, at the end of December, a court in Odesa granted investigators access to the documents of the Pivdennyi port. The case concerned possible fictitious reservation of employees from mobilization during martial law. The investigation revealed that the head of the port's mobilization and civil protection department entered false data on employee reservations into the state web portal on the instructions of the acting director.
Анна Бальчінос