DAILY-UKRAINIAN-HE SOURCES

The 'Medical Stone' Trafficking Scandal for Faking Draft Exemptions in Ukraine

In an unusual scandal revealed today, May 19, 2026, a urologist in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine was arrested on suspicion of organizing a network for selling fictitious medical certificates for men seeking to avoid military conscription. According to reports in Україна Online: Новини | Політика, the doctor would sell suspects stones that had been removed from the bodies of other patients, so that they could present false medical "evidence" to medical board examinations.

According to reporting details from 24 Канал | Новини України, the corruption mechanism involved charging a sum of about $100 as a deposit, plus $300 for supplying the "stone" and arranging the forged medical documents. Additional sources, including Український Наступ | #УкрТг ∆, noted that the biomass supplied to patients sometimes included stones removed from oncology patients or other complex medical cases, and that the doctor has been served a notice of suspicion for accepting illicit benefits.

The channel Всевидящее ОКО cynically labeled the doctor the "genius of the day" due to the creative and unconventional modus operandi. Conversely, the channel Безпечний Район added that the arrest was carried out inside the local hospital in the city of Berehove, while the suspect was caught "while receiving money for another batch of stones."

Law enforcement authorities confirmed that the investigation is ongoing, with the suspect facing a prison sentence of up to 10 years for crimes of bribery and forgery of documents intended for draft evasion, as reported in Україна⚡️Новини⚡️Війна. The case has caused widespread ripples on social media in Ukraine, given the bizarre combination of medical procedures and the national effort to prevent draft evasion.