Ukrainian police raid dozens of draft officials over suspected corruption

KYIV, May 4 (Reuters) - Authorities in Ukraine have conducted dozens of searches across 16 regions into current and former draft officials suspected of corruption-related offenses, police said on Monday.

Kyiv's military has been chronically short of men while fighting Russia's full-scale invasion, which began in early 2022, amid reports that officials have been bribed to grant exemptions from the call-up or to let men of fighting age slip out of the country despite a ban.

The National Police said they had seized money, cars and motorcycles and filed more than 150 administrative charges for violations such as illegal enrichment and the false declaration of assets.

"These operations are aimed not only at exposing isolated incidents of corruption but at the systemic cleansing of abuse from the sphere of recruitment," it said in a statement.

"The aim is to restore trust in institutions that, in wartime, perform a critically important function for the state."

Ukraine's military has been generally outmanned and outgunned, and enthusiasm to serve has been dampened by reports of poor training, corruption and heavy-handed draft officers, in addition to grim conditions at the front in a brutal war of attrition.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey)