Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called out what he described as systematic corruption in the country’s medical exemptions from service in the armed forces, saying the system was subject to widespread bribe-taking and the flight of people overseas.

Zelenskyy said that bribes of between $3,000 to $15,000 had been paid for medical exemptions from military duty.

All cases of medical exemptions from service since the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine – where there are suspicions – will be investigated, Zelenskyy said in his evening video address to the nation on Wednesday.