Mass conscription and attempts to avoid service for the third consecutive year have generated not only scandals in the media, but also created a whole class of shadow millionaires with opaque origins of wealth. These people get fantastically rich by helping evaders buy fake disabilities and flee Ukraine with fake documents.
The state is now trying to bring order in this area. One of the steps is to monitor the work of medical and social expert commissions (MSEK), verify their conclusions and prevent mass trade in false certificates of unfitness for service due to health.
Reform is overdue
At the end of June, the Ministry of Health received a letter from the State Institution "Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Disability Problems of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine". It expressed a request to subordinate the MSEC to this institution and to provide it with functions of control over their conclusions. The justification includes the results of inspections that showed a significant percentage of incorrect expert decisions. In particular, in October-November 2023 and June 2024, 12,513 medical expert cases were processed, of which errors were found in 27.65% of cases, and in some regions - up to 80% of cases.
The Institute requests that the MSEK be subordinated to it due to deficiencies in the medical expert service, the existence of criminal proceedings and the lack of a modern clinical and diagnostic base. Among the advantages of re-subordination are the simplification of access to expert and rehabilitation assistance and shortening of the expert route.
What really hides behind the screen of supposedly good intentions?
Such a step could look like a fight against corruption, if not for the realities of Ukraine, where the situation is far from ideal. The re-subordination of one institution to another may have other motives, in particular, the centralization of the corruption vertical to stamp false conclusions about unfitness for service. Just one fact — 12,513 false certificates — shows the extent of the corruption system, where bribes reach thousands of dollars for each document.
The luxurious lifestyle of Alla Kyrychenko
The head of the State institution "Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Disability Problems of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine" Alla Kyrychenko is behind the initiative to resubordinate the MSEK. However, her personal life and declaration raise questions. On her official pages in social networks, Kyrychenko actively demonstrates her participation in charity events. But the details of her wardrobe and luxurious lifestyle look like a certain contrast to the declared earnings.
For example, a Gucci leather belt worth more than 30 thousand hryvnias or sandals from Valentino Garavani for 950 euros — all this calls into question the honesty of her financial statements. Her 2022-2023 tax return lists a Lexus RX 350 luxury car, three apartments and two houses, as well as significant amounts of cash and savings that don't quite match her reported income.
Doubtful education and criminal cases
Kyrychenko was also noted for her scandalous activities at the "Dnipropetrovsk Medical Institute of Traditional and Non-Traditional Medicine", which later came under law enforcement supervision due to the illegal legalization of foreigners. It turned out that the institute became part of an illegal migration scheme financed by terrorist organizations.
Kyrychenko's luxurious life and her previous activities at the medical university call into question her motivation in the context of the re-subordination of the MSEK. There is a possibility that the new control over MSEK may turn into a new vertical of corruption, where tens and hundreds of millions of dollars will once again end up in the pockets of unscrupulous officials.
If the plan to subordinate MSEK to the "Ukrainian State Research Institute of Medical and Social Disability Problems of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine" is implemented, the system can become a powerful tool for centralized collection of bribes. The question of whether the state will be able to overcome total corruption in this area with a real reform remains open.
