Ukrainian prosecutor general resigns amid scandal over draft exemptions

Andriy Kostin steps down after corruption scheme involving false disability diagnoses for draft exemptions is uncovered.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has announced his resignation amid a scandal involving dozens of officials alleged to have abused their position to receive disability status and avoid military service.

In early October, it emerged that dozens of public prosecutors in the western region of Khmelnytskyi had falsely been awarded disability permits and were receiving special pensions.

Kostin said on Tuesday he was taking responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation around the false disability diagnoses “clearly amoral”.

“In this situation, I believe it is right to announce my resignation from the position of prosecutor general,” Kostin said.

The announcement followed a meeting of the National Security and Defence Council.

After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree to dismantle the current system of medical and social commissions responsible for registering individuals as disabled by the end of the year, eliminating a loophole that allowed draft evasion through bribery.

‘Hundreds’ of cases

After the scandal erupted earlier this month, Kostin ordered an investigation, which he said had discovered the number of prosecutors in the Khmelnytskyi region with disabilities was 61, and that 50 of them had been registered disabled before the war.

“It is very important to establish why they were granted disability status, because the share of such employees in Khmelnytskyi region is very high,” he said.

The chief prosecutor’s resignation still needs to be approved by parliament, where Zelenskyy’s party holds a majority. Following the president’s public call for accountability, it is widely expected that parliament will endorse it.

In his evening address, Zelenskyy told the nation that such corruption extended much wider than just to prosecutors.

“There are hundreds of such cases of obviously unjustified disabilities among customs, tax, pension fund and local administration officials,” he said.

“All of this needs to be dealt with thoroughly and promptly,” he said. The whole process must be digitalised, he added, saying that currently “people who have received a real disability, particularly in combat, often cannot get the appropriate status and fair payments”.

The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) had earlier issued a statement saying 64 officials within the Medical and Social Expert Commissions had been notified they were being investigated for illegally issuing disability certificates.

“Another nine people have already been convicted,” the SBU said in their statement, adding that 4,106 disability certificates “were cancelled”.

Mobilisation in Ukraine is a hotly contested and controversial issue that has polarised society after a large-scale military recruitment drive earlier this year to bolster Ukraine’s struggling forces as they fight against Russia’s invasion. Since the president signed a renewed mobilisation law in April 2024, men between the ages of 25 and 60 are now eligible. Previously, the range was 27 to 60.

Soldiers have reported difficult conditions including relentless days of heavy fire without relief due to a lack of reinforcements. Front-line troops have shared with the media that they have been moving from one battle to the next with minimal rest.

Prosecutions for desertion from Ukraine’s army are thought to have hit at least 30,000 already this year. This is several times the number in 2022, the year the war began when citizens and foreigners voluntarily poured into the military.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies