The State Bureau of Investigation has completed a pre-trial investigation into the former commander of one of the territorial defense brigades and three of his subordinates, who organized a criminal scheme to illegally receive combat payments.
In 2023, the commander registered his own wife as a rifleman in his subordinate military unit. To avoid formal suspicions of a conflict of interest, the couple officially divorced, although they continued to live together.
After being drafted into the military, the woman was never sent to a combat zone. Instead, she stayed with her husband and was engaged in horse breeding on a specialized farm. Moreover, during her “service,” the servicewoman managed to voluntarily leave for Poland, where she spent two weeks.
To legalize the payments, the brigade commander involved three subordinates, including two unit commanders. They systematically prepared falsified documents stating that the woman had participated in combat operations on the front line. Thus, in 2023–2024, she received almost 1.2 million hryvnias in additional monetary compensation.
All participants in the scheme will be tried under several articles of the Criminal Code, including fraud, official forgery, and embezzlement of budget funds through abuse of official position.
