Former officials in Dnipro were caught running a scheme to illegally send men abroad
In Dnipro, law enforcement officials have exposed immigration service officials suspected of organizing the illegal departure of men subject to military service from Ukraine. According to the investigation, the Ukrainians were registered as foreigners who were allegedly subject to forced deportation.
According to the investigation, those involved include the former head of one of the departments of the Main Directorate of the State Migration Service in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and a senior specialist from the same department.
The scheme operated through the state migration system. The officials had access to the Unified Information and Analytical System for Migration Process Management and entered false data into it regarding two alleged foreigners. In reality, these foreigners did not exist.
The chief specialist prepared and signed a decision regarding their alleged forced return and expulsion from Ukraine. The former department head approved these documents, affixed the official seal, and applied a qualified electronic signature.
Afterward, personal data, photographs, and other information about these individuals were entered into the “Registration of Foreigners and Refugees” subsystem. According to the investigation, photographs of two Ukrainian citizens subject to military service were used for these fictitious records.
In other words, the official database was supposed to contain not Ukrainian men subject to travel restrictions, but “foreigners” for whom a decision on deportation from Ukraine had allegedly already been made. It was precisely these documents and electronic records that were intended to facilitate the illegal smuggling of conscripts across the state border, circumventing martial law restrictions.
During searches of the suspects’ residences, workplaces, and offices, investigators seized mobile phones, flash drives, a computer system unit, logs of decisions on the forced return and deportation of foreigners, as well as documents pertaining to a Ukrainian citizen and two fictitious Azerbaijani citizens.
Among the items seized were decisions on forced return and expulsion, reports on administrative offenses, resolutions imposing administrative penalties, identity certificates, statements, receipts for payment of fines, personal files, and other documents.
Under the procedural guidance of the Dnipro Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Defense in the Eastern Region, officials have been notified of suspicion of unauthorized alteration of information in an automated system and aiding the illegal transportation of persons across the state border (Part 3 of Article 362, Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
The court imposed house arrest as a preventive measure on the suspects. Prosecutors have filed appeals against these decisions. The pretrial investigation is being conducted by the Territorial Office of the State Bureau of Investigation in Poltava, with operational support from the Migration Police Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
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