A broker was detained in Odesa for selling exemptions from mobilization through a municipal enterprise

A businessman suspected of helping conscripts avoid mobilization by securing them jobs at a municipal enterprise was detained in Odesa. The Odesa resident now faces up to 8 years in prison.

This was reported by the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the investigation, in October 2026, the man offered to help an acquaintance subject to military service avoid conscription during mobilization for $5,500. To do so, he promised to arrange a fictitious job for him as an assistant to the chief electrician at a municipal enterprise classified as critical infrastructure.

Photo: Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office

The suspect claimed to have connections among employees of the Primorsky District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support in Odesa, as well as among the company’s management. In exchange for money, he promised to influence them so that the conscript’s documents for deferment would be processed and issued more quickly.

The man was detained near the entrance to the high-rise building where he lives while receiving the money.

Police added that the detainee was notified of his status as a suspect in a case of abuse of influence. The court imposed a preventive measure of pretrial detention, with the possibility of release on bail set at 266,000 hryvnias.

Under this charge, the man faces up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property.

Law enforcement officials are currently establishing all the circumstances of the case. The pretrial investigation is ongoing under the procedural supervision of the Peresypsk District Prosecutor’s Office.

Ірина Глухова