A sitting member of the Ukrainian parliament has been charged with organizing the illegal transportation of individuals across the border under the guise of "drivers" for his acquaintances.
According to a statement on the State Bureau of Investigations website, since July 2022, the parliamentarian has been sending letters in his name to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine requesting permission for men to leave the country as drivers, who were supposedly meant to accompany him abroad.
"There have been 23 documented cases where, based on the parliamentarian's letters, 18 men of conscription age crossed the state border without him, as he was either abroad at the time of their crossing or had not left the country at all," the statement reads.
At times, he required up to five drivers for his overseas trips. It is emphasized that three of these "drivers" did not return to Ukraine at all.
Thus, the MP has been charged with organizing the illegal transportation of persons across the state border using his official position and committing official forgery (part 2 of article 332, part 1 of article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The penalties for these offenses include imprisonment for up to 7 years.
Additionally, the MP has been served a petition for a preventive measure in the form of detention, which will be submitted for consideration by an investigating judge.
Searches are also being conducted at the homes of the parliamentarian and those who illegally left the country.
According to a source in law enforcement, the individual in question is Konstantin Bondarev from "Batkivshchyna," who is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure.
What else is known about illegal border crossings
As reported by UNIAN, two residents of Transcarpathia attempted to illegally transport their fellow countrymen of conscription age across the Ukrainian-Slovak border by blending into the funeral procession of a soldier who died at the front.
The offenders even displayed a state flag from the window of the vehicle transporting the border violators. However, the smugglers' tricks were uncovered.