Organizers of schemes for leaving the country are operating throughout Ukraine and beyond its borders, according to Demchenko
Organizers of schemes involving the illegal crossing of Ukraine’s state border operate not only in border regions, but throughout the country and even abroad.
This was stated by Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service.
According to him, such criminal groups seek out people willing to leave Ukraine illegally and charge significant sums for this service. “Such criminal groups can be found not only in border areas but throughout Ukraine. In fact, they recruit people willing to cross the border illegally, charging an average of about $5,000–12,000, and sometimes even more. We learn about these rates from the violators themselves whom we detain. Also, quite often the organizers of these criminal schemes may be located outside Ukraine, recruiting accomplices online and communicating via social media to find people willing to facilitate illegal border crossings,” Demchenko noted.
He also reported that attempts at illegal border crossings are most frequently recorded at the borders with Romania and Moldova.
“Romania ranks first in terms of attempts to cross the border illegally. This is more than 600 kilometers of state border. And while in previous years—2022–23—the borders with Romania and Moldova had virtually identical figures, this past year and the current year have seen the section of the border with Romania record higher numbers of apprehended violators than the border with Moldova. “The section of the border with Moldova comes in second place,” he noted.
According to the State Border Guard Service, more than 500 violators have been detained since the beginning of the year, most of them specifically at the border with Romania and Moldova. Additionally, 40 criminal groups organizing the illegal crossing of Ukraine’s state border have been exposed.
Recently, operatives from the Department of Strategic Investigations dismantled an illegal border-crossing channel organized by a Kyiv resident through fictitious international music tours. The businesswoman submitted lists of band members to the relevant ministry, ostensibly for participation in charity performances in support of Ukraine.
As a reminder, a foreign national will stand trial in Kyiv for selling counterfeit temporary military service certificates to conscripts for $5,500, claiming they were unfit for service due to health conditions.
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office reported that the head of the psychiatric ward at a Kyiv hospital will face trial in the capital for issuing false diagnoses to draft dodgers in exchange for money.
