A high-level meeting was held at the Presidential Office on Bankova Street with Ukraine’s military and law enforcement leadership to address issues affecting the country’s defense readiness.
On Saturday, January 10, an expanded session brought together the heads of the General Staff, Ground Forces, the Military Law and Order Service, and national law enforcement agencies, according to Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office.
He said the discussion focused on combating corruption within the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers (TRC&SSs) and tackling the problem of unauthorized abandonment of units (AWOL) in the armed forces.
Budanov added that these issues are being closely studied and that “clear and effective” solutions are in the works, stressing it is unacceptable to abuse official duties or undermine military discipline.
In one such case in Rivne, a deputy head of a TRSSC allegedly received a Toyota Highlander as a bribe to remove a citizen from a wanted list. The vehicle was registered to a front person but was allegedly used by the suspect.
The Ground Forces Command of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that over four years of full-scale war, 272 attacks on TRC&SS personnel were recorded. In 2025, three attacks on TRSSC staff left four service members dead.
At the end of 2025, the Ministry of Defense launched a new “Mobilized Check-In” project to digitize records of military-age citizens and track their movement at every stage, flagging anomalies, including cases of AWOL.
