Border guards have corrected the TSC's data: 45,000 are not those who managed to escape from Ukraine
During the full-scale war, attempts to illegally cross the border have increased significantly, but the data was "not fully correct" at a meeting of the Temporary Investigation Commission to investigate possible violations of the law during the defense of the state. Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service, said this in a commentary to LIGA.net .
Following the meeting on illegal border crossing, PIC member Yulia Yatsyk, referring to the SBGS data, wrote that since the beginning of the full-scale war , 44,900 people have allegedly illegally crossed the border .
Demchenko emphasized that in fact this number is not people who illegally crossed the border, but people who were detained on the territory of Ukraine for attempting to illegally cross or for violating the legislation on border issues.
The 44,900 include people detained on the green section of the border (about 26,000) and people stopped at the border – at checkpoints or roadblocks (another 19,000).
Demchenko emphasized that another 4000 people detained during attempts to illegally cross the border at checkpoints can be added to this number.
He added that during the full-scale war, border guards, together with other law enforcement agencies, have uncovered about 900 criminal groups specializing in illegal human smuggling.
On average, the cost of "assistance" in crossing the border in such criminal schemes varies from $5,000 to $12,000, although in some cases people pay more, said the SBGS spokesman.
- Since March 2025, Transcarpathian region has strengthened control over Ukraine's border with Romania and Hungary.
- On April 7, the State Border Guard Service told how two men wanted to illegally cross the border with Romania, but instead wandered the Carpathians for eight days until they got caught in a snowstorm and asked for help.
