In February 2025, the Government of Ukraine officially forbade the use of the Way system to depart humanitarian cargo drivers. The reason is the mass abuse through which hundreds of men of conscript escaped abroad, hiding behind the status of volunteers. NGL.Media conducted dozens of investigations that shed light on the scale of fictitious "volunteer activity" and participation in the schemes of a number of public organizations - especially in the Lviv region.
In September 2023, journalists published an investigation into "Great Escape", where they named organizations through which the largest "volunteer" drivers left. In the leaders - NGO "Prosvita" from Nikolaev in Lviv region and associated with it "Theater of Bread". Thanks to them, about 200 men escaped from the country. They were represented by Natalia Mukha - a relative of the head of the Lviv Ova Maxim Kozitsky - and Roman Zbadovsky.
The searches were conducted only in November 2024. Other organizations in the focus of the investigation include the Commission on Combating Corruption in Sambir, Our Worldview, the Ray of Our Hope, Dream and the Sport of the Nation Foundation. The latter seized documents and equipment, because according to the investigation, 52 men fled from it.
A separate investigation is conducted on volunteer organizations related to the Barristers Law Firm and its representative Alexei Shevchuk. It is about NGO "Clean Kiev", "Bayraktar.", "Non -Citizens", "Public Environmental Initiative", "Ukrainian Guild of Activists" and others. According to journalists, more than 200 men fled this group.
Despite the investigation that has been going on since 2023, no official suspicion has been raised. The court rulings appear, but the promotion of the case is extremely slow.
One of the few cases that ended with a sentence concerns Denis Sinyavsky - founder of the Baracar. On April 28, 2025, the Dnieper Court of Cherkasy sentenced him to 7 years in prison for illegal crossing people across the border. According to the investigation, Sinyavsky received $ 2,500 from each man for entering the "Path" system.
In the process, the name "Head of the Volunteer Center", which, as it turned out, was a managing partner in a law firm, which defended Sinyavsky. It is probably about the defendants related to the Barristers group.
In 2024, the Zhovkva District Court found it guilty Irina Yermolenko, the head of the FF "World of Love", which helped leave 52 men. She was awarded 5 years in prison, but the punishment was replaced with a two -year exam.
The head of the Legion of Sich Sagittarius Yuri Naidchich became accused at once on two articles - illegal transfer of persons and unauthorized actions with data. The trial is ongoing, but there are no details in the registry.
Another case is the Renaissance Foundation for our Ukraine, through which 49 men escaped. His leader Anatoly Donets admitted that he allowed his organization in exchange for his own departure abroad. The case is investigated, but the details are unknown.
Despite the loud facts and the large number of fugitives found, most cases have not yet come to court. Only a few were punished - partially conditional, partly real. While journalistic investigations of NGL.Media have found more than 2000 such cases, Ukrainian Themis is just beginning to catch up with the persons involved.
