News

Organized crime groups that operated in Eastern Ukraine prior to the Russian invasion have managed to relocate their bribery-dependent smuggling and trafficking operations to the country's Western regions amid the ongoing conflict, U.N. officials have found. In a 50-page report, the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute determined that like other countries, the success or failure of cross-border trafficking and smuggling of goods and people in Ukraine often hinges on the ability of the perpetrators to pay complicit customs and border authorities a share of their profits. The invasion has disrupted smuggling in the combat zones of eastern Ukraine...