Several months ago, Slidstvo.Info journalists anonymously received from sources the results of a check by the Military Law Enforcement Service of one of the Kyiv-based territorial centers of recruitment and social support (TCRSS or military commissariat). The document states that over two dozen reserve officers were removed from the military records with violations during the full-scale war. Journalists spoke with four officers whose names are on the list and found that at least one of them is no longer in Ukraine. As part of its investigation, Slidstvo.Info journalists also inquired about the inspection at the military recruitment center itself.
This is reported in a video by Slidstvo.Info. The video has English subtitles.
“UNREASONABLY EXCLUDED FROM MILITARY REGISTRATION”
The document provided to Slidstvo.Info by the sources says that in the Pecherskyi military commissariat during 2022-2023, at least 24 reserve officers were unreasonably removed from military registration. The men, now unfit for military service, had ranks from junior lieutenant to major.
The Military Law Enforcement Service (VSP) calls the discharge of reserve officers groundless due to violations in the procedure itself, as well as the absence of an important document in their personal files – a certificate of disease.
“Resolutions of the MMC (Military Medical Commission – ed.) on reserve officers who are declared unfit for military service with exclusion from military registration are issued exclusively on the basis of a certificate of disease, which is subject to mandatory review by the regular regional MMC,” the document says.
The violation found by the inspection was classified as a criminal offense under Part 4 of Article 425 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: “Negligent attitude of a military official to service.” This is stated in the response to a request from the Specialized Defense Prosecutor’s Office of the Central Region of Ukraine.
The prosecutor’s office also told journalists that a similar inspection was conducted not only in Pecherskyi, but also in the Holosiyivskyi military commissariat in Kyiv. Violations were also found there and criminal proceedings under the same article were opened. In both cases, the pre-trial investigation is being conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation.
This story of officers being deregistered is surprising to a former combat medic who worked in the medical service of one of the brigades because she rarely encountered “unfit” officers.
“What would render a soldier unfit or partially fit for service, for an officer, it will say: ‘fitness is determined individually.’ Well, as a layperson in medical hierarchy, I assume this is because an officer is a staff worker, not roughly speaking, an assault infantryman, so some diseases are acceptable for him,” says a former combat medic with the call sign “Mowgli.”
“THE MILITARY MEDICAL COMMISSION DOES NOT WRITE ANYONE OFF THE FIRST TIME”
In addition, obtaining a so-called “certificate of unfitness” for active military is a complicated and lengthy procedure, veteran Oleh Muravskyi told Slidstvo.Info. The soldier managed to get his certificate only a few days before the publication of the investigation by Slidstvo.info, while he started this process back in the summer.
Veteran Oleh Muravskyi
Oleh fought during the Anti-Terrorist Operation in eastern Ukraine. Then he moved to Poland, started his own business there, and received a permanent residence permit, but in 2022 he decided to return to Ukraine and rejoin the Defense Forces.
“Every day I heard from my sister. You could tell from all her writing that she was crying. She is here under fire, and I am somewhere in Poland, living on easy street and doing well. That’s when I realized it was wrong,” says Oleh.
After six months on the front line, Oleh’s back started to hurt badly. The pain did not go away even after strong painkillers and injections. Later it turned out to be Bekhterev’s disease.
“It is the vertebrae fusing together. That is, this disease primarily affects the spine. For example, I have already developed the so-called ‘hunchback’ – I walk like a chess knight. Joints and even internal organs can also be affected,” explains Muravskyi.
The veteran managed to get discharged only on the second attempt and not without spending a lot of nerves and money on a lawyer.
“I underwent my first preliminary medical examination in Zaporizhzhya in July. Then the therapist, when he confirmed that I was ‘partially fit’ and not ‘unfit’, told me directly that the MMC does not write anyone off at the first attempt. This is on the verge of fantasy. It’s almost impossible,” says the soldier.
The former combat medic “Mowgli” stresses that during the military medical examination a person with the same diagnosis can be recognized as “fit”, “partially fit” and “unfit”. This is due to unclear wording in the Order of the Ministry of Defense No. 402 on military medical examination in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“The vaguer the wording, the more room for abuse, because there is no clarity. This order needs to be changed, especially with regard to cancer patients. For example, now a person with stage 4 cancer who has just undergone surgery and a couple of chemotherapy courses is considered ‘partially fit’. Although in many cases this person has not much time left on this earth. This is absurd,” the doctor argues.
“EMOTIONAL INCONVENIENCE” OF THE DISCHARGED OFFICERS
The document provided by the sources contained only the names and initials of 24 officers who had been discharged from the military. The Slidstvo.info journalists assumed that all of them were registered in the Pecherskyi district of Kyiv and jumped through dozens of hoops before they managed to identify and talk to at least four officers, Lieutenants Oleh Dzhurynskyi and Oleksandr Shoykhedenko, Senior Lieutenant Dmytro Tarakanov, and Junior Lieutenant Danylo Babkov.
Slidstvo.info sought out these people to ask them: “How did their name end up in the list of officers written off the military register?”
OLEH DZHURYNSKYI
Oleh Dzhurynskyi, together with his brother Vitaliy and his son Oleksandr, own the Vidi group of companies. This is a family car business, or as their official website says: a car dynasty.
Forbes wrote about their success, they attend charity events and plan to build or have already opened new company premises in Odesa and Kyiv.
The brothers also actively help the Defense Forces by donating large sums of money to charities and sending cars to the front.
(All screenshots are here on Dzhurynskyi — including posts about the opening and charity events)
Slidstvo.Info journalists called Oleh Dzhurynskyi twice. First, he hung up, and the second time he advised the journalists to address all their questions to the military commissariat and not to call him again.
“There must be a commission, and they know what they need. Right? And if I was told to do something, I did it. Please don’t look for any ploys in this. Because there isn’t one, and there can’t be. (…) You are causing me some emotional inconvenience with your call. Because now, given the way you are asking questions, I have to justify myself, and I have nothing to do it for,” said the discharged reserve officer.
OLEKSANDR SHOYKHEDENKO
Oleksandr Shoykhedenko
Another reserve officer on the list is Oleksandr Shoykhedenko. He is also a businessman, co-founder of the insurance-related business Next step solution and a company with an interesting name “People and Coffee”, as well as a former chairman of the board of a large insurance company VUSO.
In a comment to Slidstvo.Info journalists, Oleksandr Shoykhedenko said that he knew nothing about the inspection of the Pecherskyi military commissariat and how his name could have appeared in the documents. He promised to go to the military enlistment center and find out.
“I don’t want to say anything over the phone. I’ll go to the military commissariat and sort everything out. Call me on Monday,” Shoykhedenko said over the phone.
However, Oleksandr Shoykhedenko did not answer the phone anymore. After several attempts to reach him on Telegram, he blocked the journalists.
DANYLO BABKOV
Danylo Babkov
The Military Law Enforcement Service also considers the deregistration of Danylo Babkov from the military register to be groundless.
Danylo used to live in Ukraine, worked for DTEK, and was an active contributor to several Ukrainian websites about energy. Now, according to Slidstvo.info, he lives abroad. His page on Linkedin, a social networking site for finding and establishing business contacts, now lists his place of residence as the United Kingdom. Danylo also posts photos on Facebook with a geotag from this country. In both profiles, he lists S&P Global Commodity Insights as his place of work. The company is one of the most important agencies reporting on oil market prices.
The journalists’ questions initially elicited laughter from Danylo. Later, he said he considers the inclusion of his name on the mentioned list to be a misunderstanding.
“I don’t quite understand what ‘groundless’ means. I passed a medical commission and based on its results, it was decided that I was unfit for military service and was removed from the register,” says Danylo.
DMYTRO TARAKANOV
The last reserve officer identified by journalists as having been written off by the Pecherskyi military recruitment center is Dmytro Tarakanov. He did not seem pleased to receive a call from journalists, and the ensuing conversation failed to provide constructive insight. However, Slidstvo.info managed to establish that this is the same Tarakanov mentioned in the documents.
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- Dmytro Tarakanov
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- Dmytro Tarakanov
“Go to the military commissariat and you will see that everything is in line with all the laws. I don’t know what information you have, but there is no need to call me,” Tarakanov said.
WHAT DOES THE RECRUITMENT CENTER SAY ABOUT THE VIOLATIONS?
For more than two weeks, journalists have been trying to get a comment on the violations discovered during the Military Law Enforcement Service inspection from the head of the Pecherskyi military commissariat, Colonel Serhiy Kaluhin.
He refused to talk on the phone or live without the permission of the Ground Forces Command, so Slidstvo.info sent an official request to the GFC. At first, they accepted it and promised to help, but a few days later they changed their minds and advised the journalists to try to arrange an interview through the Operational Command “North”. From there, the request was sent to the Kyiv City Territorial Recruitment Center, which in turn gave the right to decide whether to agree to the interview to the Pecherskyi military commissariat.
In the end, Colonel Kaluhin himself signed the refusal to give an interview to Slidstvo.Info journalists.
“We consider it incorrect to provide any comments on the activities of the Military Law Enforcement Service during an inspection and to evaluate its results,” the response to the request of Slidstvo.Info reads.
