Legal Loophole in Ukraine: Divorcing Men to Avoid Military Service

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It’s a loophole that Ukrainian men discovered on their own. This is evident from research by the Lviv-based media company NGL Media, the online newspaper Kyiv Independent reports. It is a means to an end: by filing for divorce and going to court to become the sole guardian of their children, they are spared from military service.

To do this, NGL Media examined approximately 30,000 custody disputes in Ukrainian court records that took place between 2021 and 2023. In fact, a pattern emerged: After the Russian invasion began in February 2022, Ukrainian men increasingly began initiating such affairs – and beating their wives.

Suspicion of procedural fraud

The background: Men who have sole custody of a child are exempt from mobilization and are allowed to leave the country. Martial law normally prohibits this for Ukrainian men of military age.

It is striking that many of the custody proceedings that ended in favor of the men in 2023 were heard in the same court. According to NGL Media, this concerned about 30 percent of the rulings of a certain court in the city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, 80 kilometers from Odessa.

To assert the city’s jurisdiction, men from different cities rented apartments or hired local lawyers. In this way, complaints came from all over the country, including Kiev, Chernihiv and Lviv.

Custody purchased

Men ‘bought’ a favorable decision in custody disputes for the equivalent of 3,000 francs. They paid this amount as part of the fee to their lawyers. They in turn passed on most of the amount to the judges as bribes, as NGL Media reports, citing anonymous sources from the National Anti-Corruption Office (NABU).

Anti-corruption officials are now also aware of the alleged fraud. As the Ukrainian news portal Kyiv Independent writes, investigators suspect that four judges of the court in question, as well as several lawyers and intermediaries, are involved in the system.

Based on the large number of positive court decisions in such cases in favor of the fathers, NGL Media has made calculations: Last year alone, the court in Bilhorod-Dnistrovski probably collected more than 2.5 million francs for those involved. (gs)

Source: Blick