Deaths among those “mobilized”: seven military enlistment office employees in Zakarpattia to stand trial
Investigators uncovered 329 suspected cases of fraudulent conscription
A charge sheet has been filed against seven employees of a district territorial recruitment and social support center in Zakarpattia. The investigation is complete: the case concerns 329 suspected cases of fictitious conscription.
According to investigators, men liable for military service were registered as mobilized on paper only, to artificially improve the center’s performance figures. Among those recorded as having joined the military were people who had already served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as deceased individuals.
The suspected scheme was based on false entries in the electronic register of persons liable for military service, Oberih. Investigators established that officials used their own qualified electronic signatures to assign citizens the status of having been called up for military service.
The case involved more than electronic records. To make the conscriptions appear lawful, employees also prepared lists of citizens supposedly mobilized and assigned to specific military units. These documents were used to report on the fulfillment of mobilization measures, even though the people listed were never actually sent to the units.
The suspected scheme was uncovered in spring 2026. The initial stage of the investigation concerned 270 instances of false information being entered. Investigators attribute these entries as follows:
- the head of the district Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center’s electronic signature was used to register the fictitious mobilization of 162 people;
- the deputy head’s signature was used to enter similar information about another 108 people liable for military service.
After violations by the center’s leadership were uncovered, the investigation continued. Officers from the Strategic Investigations Department in Zakarpattia Oblast and regional police investigators documented the suspected illegal activity and established the involvement of other center employees—operators in the mobilization unit and staff in the reserve officers’ registration group. According to investigators, these employees entered false information about another 59 people liable for military service.
The charges concern the following center employees:
- the former head of the district Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center and his deputy, who headed the recruitment and staffing unit. Investigators consider them the scheme’s organizers. They are charged with organizing unauthorized actions involving information in automated systems as part of an organized group, as well as official forgery—under Articles 362 and 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, among others;
- the other five employees, who are charged with involvement in illegal actions involving information in electronic systems, committed by an organized group.
Procedural supervision of the case was carried out by the Zakarpattia Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office of the Western Region. The court will decide whether each defendant is guilty.
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