The SSU has blocked another four channels used by Ukrainian men of conscription age to illegally leave Ukraine.

As a result of multi-stage operational and investigative activities in several regions of Ukraine, the SSU detained organizers of illegal traffic.

The organizers offered potential conscripts to cross the border posing as volunteer movement members or with counterfeit documents.

The cost of such ‘services’ ranged from USD 2,000 to 6,000, depending on urgency of departure and distance.

For example, in Odesa region:

The SSU dismantled a scheme of draft evaders’ escape abroad using fake documents. Several locals and Moldovan citizens were involved in its organization.

The group put fictitious marks in their clients’ passports ‘certifying’ that they have been registered in a consulate in a neighbouring country.

In Khmelnytskyi region:

The SSU exposed a resident of Shepetivka district on offering potential conscripts to travel to the EU posing as employees who bring medical humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

To do this, he counterfeited letters expressing the ‘need’ to deliver foreign medicines to Ukrainian troops.

In Mykolaiv region:

The SSU shut down a channel for illegal transportation of draft evaders abroad through Moldova and Romania.

To arrange the escape, organizers offered fake birth certificates of children.

In Rivne region:

The SSU detained another fraudster who helped locals to illegally leave for the EU posing as drivers of international cargo flights.

Criminal proceedings were opened under the Article 332.3 of the CCU (illegal transportation of persons across state border). Investigations are ongoing.

The SSU Offices in Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi regions exposed the offenders jointly with the State Border Guard Service and the National Police under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office.