The Lviv Court of Appeal has sentenced two residents of Ivano-Frankivsk region, aged 40 and 33, to 3 years’ imprisonment, having found them guilty of organising and facilitating the illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine under Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This was reported by the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the prosecution, during 2024–2025 the convicted men, while working for a company engaged in international passenger transport, set up a scheme for the illegal departure abroad of men liable for military service. Their “clients” were transported by Mercedes-Benz coach in a concealed sleeping compartment, hiding them from customs and border control.
In this way, nine men of conscription age were illegally smuggled to Poland. The court of first instance found the accused guilty, but released them from serving their sentence with probation, setting a probationary period of three years.
Prosecutors disagreed with this decision and appealed it. The Lviv Court of Appeal upheld the arguments of the prosecution, quashed the sentence in the part concerning the punishment and delivered a new one, imposing on each of the convicted men an actual custodial sentence of three years’ imprisonment.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal has entered into legal force.