A scheme involving the illegal smuggling of men across the border in exchange for bribes has been uncovered in the Kharkiv region
Law enforcement officials have detained a group of individuals who organized the illegal smuggling of men subject to military conscription across Ukraine’s state border. Among those detained is a Russian citizen.
This was reported by the press center of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the investigation, residents of the Zaporizhzhia region were selling “services to flee Ukraine” under the guise of legal consultations regarding the legal crossing of the border. They sought out “clients” through online advertisements.
“It was precisely such an ‘ad’ that a Kharkiv resident came across in January 2026. The dealers were not interested in official procedures: one of them assured the man that the only possible way to leave the country was to cross the border outside of checkpoints,” the statement reads.
The cost of such a “transfer” was 20,000 euros. Initially, payment was demanded via a crypto wallet, but they later agreed to cash.
According to the plan, the man was to be taken to Mukachevo, where the walking route began. The “client” was warned that he would need gloves to climb over barbed-wire fences and was told he would have to swim across a river—for which they promised to provide a wetsuit.
In March, in the village of Rohan in the Kharkiv district, the “client” met with one of the participants in the scheme to be transported to Kharkiv. During the trip, the driver convinced the man of the scheme’s reliability. In the center of Kharkiv, the group was met by a third intermediary—a Russian citizen—to whom the “client” handed over the agreed-upon sum. Immediately afterward, law enforcement officers detained the two accomplices.
Under the procedural guidance of the Sloboda District Prosecutor’s Office of Kharkiv, the detainees were notified of their status as suspects under Part 3 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—organizing the illegal transportation of persons across the state border, directing such actions, and facilitating them in a manner dangerous to a person’s life or health, by prior conspiracy and for mercenary motives.
Prosecutors, together with other law enforcement officers, are gathering evidence and conducting investigative actions to notify a third accomplice, who is currently abroad, of the charges against him.
Earlier in Kyiv, law enforcement officers detained a man who, for $10,000, promised to help a conscript leave the country under the guise of a clergyman.
As a reminder, over the past year, operational units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, dismantled more than 520 criminal groups.
As a reminder, in Vinnytsia region, a military official was exposed for selling “leave” to her subordinates.
Also, in the Chernihiv region, a scheme to defer mobilization through fictitious employment was uncovered.
