SSU and National Police expose couple in Zaporizhzhia who extorted kickbacks for state-guaranteed payments to fallen Ukrainian defenders' families
Security Service of Ukraine
13:00, 14 July 2025
The SSU Military Counterintelligence and the National Police have shut down another extortion scheme targeting the families of deceased Armed Forces soldiers.
In exchange for processing posthumous payments from the state, the perpetrators demanded 50% of the one-time budget assistance from the relatives of the deceased and then regular kickbacks from monthly payments.
There is documented evidence of extortion from the wife of a soldier of the AFU's 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade, who was killed in Pokrovsk area.
The organizers of the scheme are a former military officer, who is now the founder of several civil organizations in Poltava region, and his wife, an official at a Territorial Recruitment Centre in Zaporizhzhia.
While serving as head of psychological support unit, the woman collected data on the relatives of deceased soldiers.
She then passed the contacts of the affected families to her husband in Poltava. He called them and offered to quickly arrange state payments.
If they refused, he threatened to create artificial obstacles during the consideration of documents for receiving monetary compensation.
To this end, he boasted to the victims about his connections in the military command, which he said could completely 'cancel' the payments.
The law enforcement caught the individual in the act when the wife of a deceased soldier transferred half of the lump-sum compensation to his bank account.
Another 19 packages of documents from other families who lost loved ones at the front, as well as contacts of victims and cash in various currencies amounting to almost USD 50 000, were found during the searches of the suspect.
The detainee has been notified of suspicion under Article 369.3 of the CCU (offering, promising or providing unlawful benefits to an official, committed upon prior conspiracy by a group).
The suspect faces up to eight years in prison with confiscation of property.
The investigation is ongoing to bring his accomplice and others involved in the scheme to justice.
The operation was carried out under the procedural supervision of Zaporizhzhia Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Eastern Region.
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