In Mykolaiv Oblast, a commander was sentenced for a scheme involving combat pay

In the Mykolaiv region, a military unit commander who organized a scheme to illegally claim combat pay was put on trial. The court sentenced him to five years in prison and a fine of 17,000 hryvnias, but suspended the prison term and placed him on a two-year probationary period.

This is stated in the verdict of the Kazankivsky District Court of Mykolaiv Oblast.

As established by the investigation, from December 2024 to June 2025, the defendant, in prior conspiracy with a lieutenant colonel—the organizer—and another military servicemember, participated in a scheme to illegally obtain additional monetary compensation in the amount of 100,000 hryvnias for alleged participation in combat operations. In reality, the personnel of the firefighting platoon were not actually involved in combat missions and remained at their temporary deployment site.

The defendant personally drafted reports containing knowingly false information, on the basis of which orders for payments were issued.The money was deposited into the bank cards of his subordinates. The military personnel transferred part of the funds they received in cash through an intermediary to the organizer of the scheme. 

As a result of the actions of the suspect and his accomplices, the state suffered losses totaling more than 2.5 million hryvnias.

Earlier, the Kherson City Court approved a plea agreement with the former head of the Kherson State Maritime Academy, who in March 2026 signed 21 fictitious contracts for the supply of food for students worth nearly half a million hryvnias. The official received a three-year probationary sentence instead of five years of actual imprisonment.

Юлія Калабайда