We recently announced series of articles, the subject of which will be related to corruption in various spheres of national security. For the first material, we chose one of the most difficult and painful topics – medicine and passing the military medical commission in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In general, before the beginning of the aggression of the Russian Federation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, our army was in a very bad condition – constant reduction, embezzlement and lack of proper funding constantly weakened the defense capability of our state. You can learn more about this from our recent article – Ministry of Defense, where are the ammunition?. The Armed Forces had problems, in fact, with all spheres of life, including medicine. One of the main problems was, not surprisingly, total corruption.
The number of wounded is increasing daily, the system is working to exhaustion, there are often not enough people, however, the majority of the military notes the professionalism of doctors and personnel involved in the first stages of evacuation and treatment. In order to better understand this situation, we turned to the data of, in fact, experts in this field – GO «Principle». Next, we present their infographic, based on a social study among servicemen who were injured. The given numbers should be understood as the ratio of servicemen who faced the problem to the total number of respondents.
The given numbers perfectly illustrate the imperfection of modern medical care in the Armed Forces, which is directly related to the level of corruption, because problems give rise to dissatisfaction, and only then do those who can and want to “help” appear.
It is not a secret for anyone that until recently, questions regarding the suitability or unfitness of a person for military service were resolved. Now this trend is undoubtedly improving, but everything is far from perfect. Almost every week, new reports about corruption scandals involving military doctors and members of the VLK appear in the domestic media. In order not to stretch the material, we will give examples only from the beginning of 2024.
- April 3, 2024, Zhytomyr region. Representatives of the National Police the head of the regional VLK was detained and his two accomplices. Dilki undertook to “help” wounded servicemen to obtain the desired decision of the commission for a reward of 3 to 5 thousand dollars. The perpetrators were detained while receiving part of the amount, during the searches, about 20 thousand dollars and 40 thousand hryvnias were found, as well as evidence of their activities.
- At approximately the same time, suspicion was announced in the capital against a member of one of the Kyiv regional police forces at the Territorial centers of assembly – the Office of the Prosecutor General reports. It is noted that the doctor was detained while receiving a reward in the amount of $3,000 for providing a conclusion on unfitness for a conscript.
- Notification of suspicion also received by a doctor from one of the Military Medical Clinical Centers of the Ministry of Defense, who, according to the investigation, demanded 5 thousand dollars from the military man for the “correct” conclusion of the VLK. Currently, the man has been detained, and the investigation is ongoing.
- Detained in Khmelnytskyi region a member of the VLC of one of the military hospitals – the man demanded 40,000 hryvnias as a “charity contribution” from the military for establishing the status of “Limited Fit”, despite the fact that the patient had heart problems.
- Five doctors at once reported the suspicion in Lviv Oblast – they demanded money from conscripts for obtaining falsified documents, which were supposed to help men avoid conscription.
And this is far from a complete list of violations recorded this year. By the way, still in the summer The president announced large-scale inspections of the activities of the VLK for corruption, and the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption even created a whole brochure entitled “Corruption risks in the activities of the VLK”, however, so far, no qualitative changes are visible.
By and large, such cases cast a shadow on all military medical workers, although there, as in other fields, there are a large number of decent and honest people, as I have seen from my own experience. During the entire time of treatment, rehabilitation and passing through the VLC, I was never hinted at solving any issues in a known way.
However, these “parts” are not taken out of nowhere. Demand creates supply. In my opinion, corruption in the field of the Armed Forces will not be eradicated until the state develops adequate mechanisms for the release of military personnel. Many people go to work with werewolves in white coats purely because they do not see any other options, and do not even know the approximate dates of their return from service.
An interesting situation exists with material support in military medicine, yes The Ministry of Defense reports about the discovery of about 30,000 SOF turnstiles in the warehouses during the audit, at a time when the troops had a catastrophic shortage of them.
It should be noted that this is far from the first case when items of tactical medicine become objects of scandals. So, for example, the story of Andriy Shevchuk – the head of the medical service of the 82nd brigade of the National Guard is illustrative. During the inspection of tactical first-aid kits of servicemen, he discovered low-quality Chinese-made turnstiles, and informed the top management about it. What happened later? Repression began. Shevchuk was severely reprimanded, wanted to be discharged from the hospital several times, and in the end – was transferred to another military unit to a lower position. And this is only because, according to Shevchuk himself, he reported on poor-quality turnstiles, due to the fact that he could not see how soldiers go into battle without proper equipment.
As we can see, corruption and negligence flourish in the field of medical support of the Armed Forces. Correcting this situation is possible only as a result of constant social control and pressure. The presence of this problem is a shot in the back to those who defend the country with their chests, because a soldier who goes into battle must know and understand that he has a high-quality tourniquet in his first-aid kit, he can be taken out of the battlefield in case of injury, he will be treated, he will be rehabilitated, and in if necessary, they will be released without envelopes.
Pavlo Groholskyi
