Police expose criminal network that trafficked orphans abroad, exploited draft exemptions
Ukrainian law enforcement uncovered a scheme in Odesa Oblast in which a criminal network trafficked orphans to foreign buyers and enabled draft-age men to pose as the children’s legal guardians to pass the border, the National Police reported on Dec. 9.
Intercountry adoption has been suspended under martial law, but investigators say the network circumvented those restrictions by forging paperwork that allowed draft-age men to present themselves as the children’s legal guardians.
Legal guardians of orphaned children are among the few categories of men exempt from military service during martial law and permitted to leave the country.
The group also pressured officials in child services and military enlistment offices, investigators said, relying on corruption and posing as well-placed figures from the President’s Office, adoption agencies and the legal community. One member, who lived abroad, operated under the cover of an international charitable foundation where he held a senior role.
Thirteen children were illegally sent abroad and placed with foreign families for adoption, while law enforcement intercepted the transfer of another 12. The network received "significant sums of money" for each operation, according to law enforcement.
