Unlike Ghana and some other ‘peaceful’ nations where being a soldier is so dignifying that people would not mind dying to get enlisted, Ukrainian is still using the archaic method of conscripting young and energetic citizens, sometimes against their will.
According to reports, all able-bodied Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 26 are required to undergo military service unless a particular young man is responsible for looking after a disabled wife.
Due to crime and hostilities that are pervasive in that country which sometimes leads to the killing of security officials, Alexander Kondratyuk, a young man from the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa has always dreaded being conscripted. So, when he received a letter from the military authorities in late 2017, he became restless until a smart plan crossed his mind.
The fearsome Alexander managed to convince his cousin’s 81-year-old disabled grandmother to become his bride, all in bid to be exempted from the military service, and the trick has since worked for him.
According to Odditycentral.com, the military commissariat in Vinnitsa filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office in hopes of getting the marriage between the then 22-year-old Alexander Kondratyuk and Zinaida Illarionovna, 57 years his senior, annulled.
They thought the young man had forged the weird marriage to avoid being conscripted but an investigation showed that the pair had legally gotten married in the village of Baykovka, near Vinnitsa.
Checks from the civil acts registration office in 2018 also confirmed the marriage, so he was left off the hook.
Well, it is clear to many people within the Vinnitsa region that Alexanders’ marriage to the octogenarian was a predetermined strategy to avoid the military service but there is no option but to respect their union.
Aleksandr Danilyuk, the director of the commissariat in charge of conscription is reported as saying that even if the assertion was true, there is nothing to do about it since there are valid documents to prove that he is married to 81-year-old Zinaida Illarionovna who is also a registered disabled woman.
As it stands now, Alexander is married to a disabled woman and for that reason is legally exempted from the compulsory military service, unless something happens to his wife Zinaida and she dies before Alexander turns 27 years.
Maybe, he would file for divorce after turning 27 when he is not qualified to do the military service.