Ukraine bureau uncovers $8,000 desertion-assistance scheme in Chernihiv region

Investigators from Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (DBR), working with the Armed Forces' Military Law Enforcement Service, have uncovered a criminal scheme in the Chernihiv region that helped servicemen desert from training centers. Four people have been notified of suspicion for organizing assistance to soldiers seeking to avoid further military service.

How the scheme worked

According to the DBR, the organizer was a civilian who does not serve in the military and has been removed from the military registry. Investigators say he learned that a serviceman intended to illegally leave his post and offered to help him for money. To carry out the plan, the civilian recruited two servicemen and another civilian. Together they mapped out a route and divided responsibilities: one of the soldiers was to use his official authority to ensure unimpeded passage through checkpoints, while the others were to collect the serviceman from his unit and arrange his onward transport.

Prosecutors say the group effectively advertised its "services" on social media, offering help to anyone wanting 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 unit, taken to a predetermined location where he was given civilian clothes, and then driven by car toward Chernihiv. The participants received $8,000 for organizing the escape. They were detained immediately after receiving the payment.

All four suspects have been notified of suspicion of a completed attempt to organize desertion, committed under martial law by a group acting by prior conspiracy. All have been remanded with the option of bail. Investigators are now working to establish whether the scheme was involved in other similar episodes.