A 24-year-old resident of Zhytomyr will appear in court in Odessa, charged with facilitating the illegal transfer of a conscripted man from Ukraine to the unrecognized Transnistria. According to police, the man acted in collusion with an unidentified accomplice and now faces up to seven years in prison.
According to the National Police, the scheme was attempted to be implemented through the Odessa region. All actions were coordinated according to a previous plan. The unidentified organizer found a “client” in Odessa, and a resident of Zhytomyr agreed to become a carrier.
The man arrived in Odessa, picked up the draftee, and took him to a border settlement in the Podilskyi district. His task was to get the draft evader as close as possible to the border with unrecognized Transnistria, and also provide instructions on how to independently cross the state border outside the checkpoints, bypassing the border guards.
The car was stopped by police on the way to its destination. After the arrest, a pre-trial investigation began under the procedural guidance of the Suvorov District Prosecutor's Office of Odessa.
The investigation has now been completed, and the collected evidence has allowed charges to be brought under Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine - illegal smuggling of persons across the state border, organization and facilitation of this by prior conspiracy.
The indictment has been submitted to the court. If found guilty, the man faces up to seven years in prison with an additional penalty of a ban on holding certain positions or engaging in relevant activities for three years.
