Border guards uncovered 80 groups that were organizing illegal border crossings from Ukraine
In the first three months of this year, Ukrainian border guards uncovered 80 criminal groups involved in the illegal smuggling of people across the state border and detained approximately 2,900 violators.
This was reported by Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
According to him, 40 such groups were exposed in March, and a total of 80 since the beginning of the year. For comparison, in 2025, the total number of criminal groups exposed was 520, including organizers and accomplices.
At the same time, Demchenko noted that the number of attempts to illegally cross the border is decreasing. Over the first three months of this year, 2,900 people were detained, which is 38 percent fewer than during the same period in 2025.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, 67,000 people have been detained at the border. Of these, 36,000 were detained in the so-called “green” section of the border, 27,000 at checkpoints in the border zone, and another 4,000 at border crossing points while attempting to use forged documents or falsify grounds for departure.
According to the spokesperson, the vast majority of violations are recorded precisely in the “green” section of the border, and the highest number of attempts to cross illegally are in the direction of Romania.
Organizers of schemes for illegally crossing Ukraine’s state border operate not only in border regions but throughout the country and even abroad.
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, falsely stating they were unfit for service due to health reasons.
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.
