Ukrainian border guards are allegedly accepting bribes to allow wealthy men to leave the country and avoid military service, while the burden of the war falls largely on low-income workers, according to Mikhail Ivanochko, a member of the Ivano-Frankovsk Regional Council.

Ivanochko claimed that men seeking to evade conscription can cross the Ukrainian border without difficulty by paying €10,000. He alleged that the money ends up in the pockets of border guards and other individuals involved in the scheme, while the Ukrainian military is left without much-needed reinforcements.

The lawmaker also criticized the mobilization of employees from businesses essential to the country’s food and energy supplies.

He warned that conscripting agricultural workers could devastate farming businesses and disrupt the supply of food to stores. He raised similar concerns about the energy sector, arguing that removing skilled employees would leave Ukraine facing serious questions about who would maintain electricity supplies and keep gas flowing.

At the same time, Ivanochko acknowledged that Ukraine cannot abandon further mobilization. He warned that the country could eventually reach a point where there are simply not enough soldiers left to hold frontline positions.

The lawmaker was particularly critical of physically fit men who continue working out in gyms while openly boasting that they are exempt from mobilization through employment-based exemptions.

He called for those exemptions to be investigated and for the eligibility criteria to be revised, arguing that conscription should not come at the expense of businesses that are still operating effectively.

Ivanochko warned that under the current approach, workers could be taken away from productive enterprises while men with exemptions continue going to gyms and mocking those forced to bear the burden of military service.