Ukraine's fake vaccine certificate black market

This is the moment Ukrainian police raided a doctor's surgery that is allegedly involved in a flourishing black market in forged vaccine and COVID-19 test certificates.

This operation is just one of hundreds of criminal investigations publicized by the authorities.

In another case, law enforcement caught a man hawking fake vaccine certifications on social media.

Charging $114, he would arrange for a doctor to enter people's names as vaccinated on the national database, according to a statement by the prosecutor general's office.

The government has made shots compulsory for some state employees and unvaccinated citizens face restrictions in certain venues.

These new rules provided more incentive for those who do not want vaccines to get fake ones.

Tetyana Mykhailevska, head doctor at the infectious diseases department at Kyiv Hospital number 3, said buying those certificates was quote "probably the worst crime committed against the country and our society."

"If a person has bought a COVID certificate, it means he can get infected, but not ill yet, he can then infect a lot people with coronavirus who will afterwards bring the infection to their families. Then the families will get ill, then some of them with severe symptoms will be admitted to the intensive care units and will occupy beds there, and will die. And then the COVID-19 epidemic will never ever end."

Ukraine is experiencing some of the highest death rates from COVID-19 in the world.

It lagged behind its neighbors in procuring vaccines earlier this year.

And now, it is struggling to persuade a skeptical population to take them.

Only around 7 million out of 41 million Ukrainians are fully inoculated against COVID-19.

Surveys also suggest around half of adults do not want to be vaccinated.

Ukraine's deputy interior minister Yevhenii Yenin said on Tuesday (October 26) the country is "drowning in forged vaccination certificates."

He added that those found guilty "would not escape punishment" and encouraged people to get vaccinated.