Politics

Former border guard chief charged in 204,000 euro bribery scheme

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Former border guard chief charged in 204,000 euro bribery scheme
Serhii Deineko, then head of Ukraine's State Border Service, at a checkpoint on the border between Ukraine and Poland in Lviv Oblast on Dec. 21, 2024. (Michael Sorrow/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said on Jan. 22 that it had charged a former head of the State Border Guard with receiving bribes.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that the official involved is Serhiy Deineko, who headed the State Border Guard from 2019 to Jan. 4, 2026. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Two other officials of the State Border Guard were also charged.

In 2023 border guards received at least 204,000 euros for facilitating the smuggling of cigarettes through the border between Ukraine and the European Union, the bureau said.

The smugglers used vehicles with fake diplomatic license plates whose passengers were relatives of Ukrainian diplomats, according to the NABU.

Their diplomatic passports enabled them to cross the border without inspections, the bureau said.

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Oleg Sukhov

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Oleg Sukhov is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is a former editor and reporter at the Moscow Times. He has a master's degree in history from the Moscow State University. He moved to Ukraine in 2014 due to the crackdown on independent media in Russia and covered war, corruption, reforms and law enforcement for the Kyiv Post.

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