Ukraine’s border guards curb draft evasion routes, bust 80 smuggling rings

This was stated in an interview with Ukrinform by Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

“Last year, 520 such criminal groups were exposed, including both organizers and accomplices. This year, in just three months, 80 such groups have already been uncovered, 40 of them in March. Over the first three months of this year, border guards detained 2,900 offenders,” the spokesperson said.

At the same time, he noted that this is 38% less than in the same period of 2025, adding that the number of attempts to cross the border illegally has been declining compared to 2024-2025.

According to Demchenko, since February 2022, a total of 67,000 people have been detained at the border. Of these, 36,000 were caught in so-called “green” border areas, 27,000 at border control posts in border regions, and 4,000 at official crossing points while attempting to use forged documents or falsify the grounds for leaving the country.

In other words, the vast majority of offenders attempt to cross via “green” sections of the border, with the border area with Romania being the most common route.

As previously reported by Ukrinform, more than 520 groups involved in the illegal smuggling of people across the border were uncovered in Ukraine last year.

Photo: SBGS