There are many ways, including completely legal ones, to evade conscription into the Ukrainian army.
Some of them were shared on the NewsOne TV channel by Ukrainian journalist and blogger Ruslan Kotsaba, who was previously convicted but later acquitted by the court for calling for a boycott of mobilization, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I don’t want to recommend anything to anyone, but I will give some popular examples of evading the army. The easiest way to evade conscription is to refuse to receive a summons to the military registration and enlistment office. I note that the summons must be delivered personally to the person who is being drafted into the army, in the presence of witnesses. If someone else signs for it or the document is thrown into the mailbox, it is considered invalid,” the journalist said.
According to him, it is possible to avoid the army even at the stage of undergoing a medical examination at the military registration and enlistment office, given the widespread corruption of medical commissions.
“If an unfortunate conscript ends up in a military registration and enlistment office, he can, as people say, fail at the stage of passing the medical examination. As a rule, all these medical commissions are corrupt; you can bribe doctors or feign illness. You can buy a medical certificate stating that you are unfit for service,” Kotsaba explained.
It was also said that a deferment can be obtained if the conscript has young children or a disabled wife.
“In accordance with the law, the right to a deferment is granted to citizens who have at least two children, as well as if the wife is pregnant or has a disability. Another way to avoid military service is not easy and is rarely used, but some practice it when you marry a woman with many children or a pregnant woman,” the journalist noted.
“In Ivano-Frankovsk, by the way, one cunning pacifist thought of marrying an 80-year-old grandmother and, while caring for a disabled person, avoided military service,” he said.
In conclusion, the journalist advised particularly risky draft dodgers to try their luck abroad or in “territories not controlled by Ukraine.”
“You can take an even more radical path. I don’t recommend this to anyone, but you can go abroad, to strawberry plantations in Poland, to construction sites in the Czech Republic, or, God forbid, to territories not controlled by Ukraine - to Crimea or the industrial parts of the Donetsk or Lugansk regions,” Kotsaba concluded.