Operation to transport people across mountains for a fee: suspect detained in Kyiv region

In the Kyiv region, law enforcement officers have identified a man suspected of organizing the illegal departure of military personnel from Ukraine, including service members. This scheme was uncovered by migration police operatives together with investigators from the Kyiv police under the supervision of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Defense of the Central Region.

According to the investigation, the suspect was looking for men of draft age who were trying to avoid mobilization and offered them ways to leave the country. Among his clients were military personnel; in particular, he offered his services to the cohabitant of one of the service members, promising to organize his departure abroad.

The plan was that the suspect would personally pick up the man from a military unit in Kharkiv, deliver him to Kyiv, and then transport him to the western regions. Then the serviceman was to cross the state border illegally, bypassing official checkpoints, and travel through mountainous or forested areas towards Hungary.

The cost of the organizer’s services was almost 9 thousand US dollars. The payment was made in installments: the first was about $4,600, and the remaining payments were planned to be received during the implementation of the scheme.

The man was detained during the transfer of the second payment. The seized money is now part of the case file. Investigators informed him of suspicion under Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which regulates the illegal smuggling of persons across the state border for selfish motives. The sanction of this article provides for a penalty of imprisonment for a term of seven to nine years with confiscation of property.