In Bukovina, a fake volunteer defrauded the families of missing soldiers
In Bukovina, a court sentenced a woman who posed as a volunteer and swindled money from the families of missing servicemen. According to law enforcement, the suspect exploited the victims’ trust to make at least 75,000 hryvnias by promising to help find their loved ones.
According to the investigation, the 42-year-old resident of Chernivtsi created fake accounts on Facebook and messaging apps, found posts by families of missing servicemen, and contacted them.
She told the relatives that their loved ones had allegedly been found alive but were in critical condition and needed urgent evacuation from the gray zone. She asked them to transfer money to organize such an “evacuation.”
To convince the women, she used photos of soldiers that she found on their relatives’ social media pages. After receiving the funds, she would invent new excuses—claiming there wasn’t enough money for the evacuation—and persuade the relatives to make additional transfers.
From November 2025 to January 2026, the woman defrauded five female relatives of soldiers, swindling them out of more than 75,000 hryvnias. In court, she fully admitted her guilt and stated that she could not explain her actions.
The court found the fake volunteer guilty of fraud (Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and sentenced her to three years in prison.
Source: Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor’s Office
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