Fabricated injuries to avoid military registration: scheme under investigation in Kyiv

A neurosurgeon at one of Kyiv‘s municipal medical facilities is suspected of producing fake medical documents for men. According to investigators, these documents helped them obtain disability status and subsequently seek removal from the military register.

The doctor was detained inside the hospital immediately after receiving 226,000 hryvnias, which investigators say he accepted in exchange for providing a patient with fictitious treatment. The detention was carried out under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. The court ordered the suspect held in custody, with the option of bail set at 266,000 hryvnias.

Investigators believe that, in exchange for money, the neurosurgeon prepared documents listing diagnoses that did not correspond to the patients’ actual health conditions. Using his connections in the medical community, he also allegedly helped men obtain a disability group or subgroup so they could later be removed from the military register.

According to investigators, the scheme began with a fictitious admission to the neurosurgery department. The men were brought in by ambulance with complaints of head injuries and admitted for inpatient treatment. At the facility, they were allegedly examined, had tests taken, and were prescribed treatment.

According to investigators, the medical records were filled in with diagnoses of illnesses and injuries the patients did not actually have. These included:

• traumatic brain injury;
• brain contusion;
• brain hemorrhage.

These records were then used to compile a set of medical documents that made it possible to obtain disability status.

During a search of the neurosurgeon’s office, law enforcement officers seized nearly US$115,000 and 130,000 hryvnias. The prosecutor asked the court to freeze the funds.

The doctor’s actions were classified under the following provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:

• Part 3 of Article 369-2 — accepting an offer to receive an undue benefit in exchange for influencing a decision by an authorized person, combined with extortion.
• Part 4 of Article 354 — receiving an undue benefit as an employee of an institution for actions using one’s position, also combined with extortion.

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Law enforcement officers are establishing which other medical workers may have helped prepare the fake documents and facilitated patients’ receipt of disability status.

We previously reported:

• Up to $10,000 for “unfitness”: scheme exposed at a recruitment center in Zakarpattia
• Paper disability status to avoid mobilization and $450,000: Mykolaiv court gives medical commission chief a suspended sentence
• Recruitment center officer detained for taking $20,000 to arrange a deferment
• Corruption at a military enlistment office: Mykolaiv court closes case against military medical commission doctor due to the statute of limitations
• Mykolaiv police detain Kherson military enlistment officer who demanded a $4,500 bribe to remove someone from the military register