Ukraine’s general prosecutor resigns amid draft exemption scandal | Russia-Ukraine war News

Andriy Kostin stepped down after the revelation of a corruption scheme involving false diagnosis of draft exemptions.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has announced his resignation following a scandal involving dozens of officials who allegedly abused their positions to obtain disability status and avoid military service.

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

Kostin said on Tuesday that he took personal responsibility for the scandal and announced his resignation. He called the situation surrounding false disability claims “clearly humane”.

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

This announcement follows a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.

After the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the dissolution of the current system of medical and social commissions responsible for registering people with disabilities by the end of the year, removing a loophole that allows circumvention of the draft by bribery.

‘Hundreds’ of cases

After the scandal broke earlier this month, Kostin ordered an investigation, which he said found that the number of disabled prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi district was 61, and that 50 of them were registered as disabled before the war.

“It is very important to find out why they were given the disability status, because the share of such workers in Khmelnytskyi district 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 call for public accountability, the parliament is expected to approve it.

In his evening speech, Zelenskyy told the nation that such corruption is more widespread than prosecutors.

“There are hundreds of cases like this of obvious defects between inheritance, tax, pension fund and local authorities,” he said.

“All this must be handled properly and quickly,” he said. The whole system must be digitized, he added, saying that at the moment “people who have received real disabilities, especially in the war, often cannot get the right status and the right payments”.

Earlier, the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) issued a statement saying that 64 officials under the Medical and Social Expert Commissions were informed that they were being investigated for issuing disability certificates illegally.

“Another nine people have been sentenced,” the SBU said in a statement, adding that 4,106 disability certificates had been “cancelled”.

Recruiting in Ukraine is a hot-button and controversial issue that has divided society after a massive recruitment drive earlier this year to bolster Ukraine’s struggling military as it battles Russian aggression. Since the president signed the renewal of the draft law in April 2024, men between the ages of 25 and 60 are now eligible. Previously, the range was 27 to 60.

Soldiers reported harsh conditions that included endless days of heavy fire without relief due to a lack of reinforcements. Leading soldiers shared with the media that they have been moving from one battle to the next with little rest.

Persecution of deserters from the Ukrainian army is thought to have hit at least 30,000 this year. This is several times the number in 2022, the year the war began when citizens and foreigners volunteered to fight.