{
  "id": 1524713,
  "title": "Ukraine's acting police chief reveals scale of draft evasion investigations",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/ukraines-acting-police-chief-reveals-scale-of-draft-evasion",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-17T17:22:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Kyiv Independent",
    "slug": "kyiv-independent",
    "url": "https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-acting-police-chief-reveals-scale-of-draft-evasion-investigations/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ukraine's acting police chief, Maksym Tsutskiridze, revealed the extensive scale of draft evasion investigations conducted by the National Police since the imposition of martial law following Russia's full-scale invasion. According to Tsutskiridze, over 20,000 criminal cases of draft evasion have been investigated by the police. The police are also probing corruption within Ukraine's controversial regional recruitment centers and military medical commissions. They have received 1.5 million requests from enlistment offices to locate suspected evaders. The National Police have issued 76 notifications of suspicion for corruption involving regional recruitment center heads, with one instance involving an official in Rivne offering bribes to issue false military registration documents. In Kherson, officials charged $7,000 to falsify records in the state Oberih registry to allow individuals to avoid service. Medical commissions have been scrutinized for issuing fictitious illnesses in medical records to enable evasions, with 6,500 rulings annulled since February 2022 and over 1,600 individuals sent for re-examination. The police are also investigating businesses suspected of offering illegitimate military service reservations, with 2,500 cases of illegitimate reservations due to fictitious employment.",
  "summary": "Maksym Tsutskiridze added that police have received 1.5 million requests from enlistment offices related to locating people suspected of evading mobilization.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Meduza (English)",
        "title": "Russia’s biggest state development corp fires Andrei Klepach, its chief economist, for saying in May that Moscow is losing its war of attrition with the West, and losing it ‘in some ways’ to Ukraine",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/russias-biggest-state-development-corp-fires-andrei-klepach-its-chief",
        "published": "2026-08-17T17:07:22.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Euromaidan Press",
        "title": "$3,032 to kill a soldier on whom Russia spends $65,000: Ukraine’s new system puts a price on every strike",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/17/3-032-to-kill-a-soldier-on-whom-russia-spends-65-000-ukraines-new",
        "published": "2026-08-17T17:08:43.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}