Chernihiv region: scheme helping soldiers desert for $8,000 uncovered

In Ukraine's Chernihiv region, the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), working with the Armed Forces' Military Law Enforcement Service, uncovered a scheme that helped servicemen desert from training centers. The specialized defense-sector prosecutor's office for the Central region reported that four people have been notified of suspicion for organizing the criminal scheme aimed at helping soldiers evade further military service.

How the scheme worked

According to investigators, the organizer was a civilian who is not serving in the military and has been removed from the military register. After learning that a serviceman intended to illegally leave his unit, he offered paid assistance. To carry out the plan, the organizer recruited two servicemen and another civilian. Together they worked out an escape route and divided the roles: one soldier, using his official position, was to ensure unimpeded passage through checkpoints, while the others were to collect the deserting serviceman from his unit and arrange his further transport.

The group advertised its "services" on social media, offering help to anyone wishing to illegally leave military service.

First "order" and arrest

On September 2, the group carried out its first such "order." A serviceman was helped to leave his military unit, taken to a pre-arranged location, given civilian clothes, and then driven by car toward Chernihiv. The group received $8,000 for organizing the desertion, but its members were detained immediately after receiving the money.

The organizer and his accomplices have now been notified of suspicion of a completed attempt to organize desertion, committed under martial law by prior conspiracy of a group of persons. All suspects have been placed under arrest with the possibility of bail. Prosecutors say they are now checking for other possible episodes of similar illegal activity.