Ukrainian Border Guards Shoot Deserter on Moldova Border

The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) reported on four servicemen from a military training unit in the Zakhariv district of the Odesa region trying to flee to Moldova.

Spokesperson from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Andriy Demchenko, in a comment to RBC-Ukraine, said that on the evening of Sunday,  July 14, border guards stopped a vehicle in which, in addition to the driver, were four people. Two tried to escape the scene and were caught as they tried to cross the border.

One of the fugitives attacked a border guard while trying to escape who, in response, shot the attacker with his service weapon. Emergency doctors called to the incident pronounced the attacker dead and treated the injured border guard.

The SBI is investigating the incident as a possible excessive use of official powers by a law enforcement officer, resulting in a serious outcome. The investigation is supervised by the Specialized Prosecutor's Southern region field Office.

Record numbers of evaders detained in Odesa

Border guards stated that more than a dozen people have died this year alone trying to cross the rivers that run along Ukraine's western border and that they have also detained large numbers of people trying to smuggle themselves out of the country in a variety of ways.

On June 25, the State Border Service of Ukraine reported it had stopped four vans and an SUV, containing 47 men of conscription age from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa regions, trying to cross the state border.

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The individuals had paid fees of between $5,000 – $18,500 to contacts identified from Telegram channels. The vans had no passenger seats forcing the evaders to travel more than 100 kilometers lying on mattresses and had been given no guarantees they would make the crossing.

On June 14, a truck being driven by a resident of the Bolgrad district of the Odesa region carrying grain was also stopped by border guards. Hidden underneath the cargo they found 41 men aged 18-60 originating from several regions of Ukraine.