Ukrainian MFA asks Moscow to provide information about Ukrainian citizens arrested in Russia for drug smuggling
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry sent a request to the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry of Russia to confirm information they received about the presence of Ukrainian citizens among the detained members of the criminal group "Khimprom." This was posted on Saturday, February 11th, on the Facebook page of the Department of Consular Service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
"The requests addressed to the Foreign Ministry and the investigative department of the Interior Ministry of Russia were sent, asking to confirm the information about the presence of citizens of Ukraine among the detained, the details of their alleged crimes, the places of detention and the availability of a lawyer," the report says.
On the same day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia, in relation to the case of the international drug cartel ''Khimprom," are the victims of human trafficking.
"On the territory of the Russian Federation, there are hundreds of our citizens, who at various times became victims of human traffickers ... RF presents them not as victims of illegal activities, but, as members of an organized criminal group," the press service of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry told the Interfax news agency.
However, according to the Ministry, in such cases, it is difficult to prove that people are the victims of human trafficking, and also very hard to get them extradited and their sentences transferred.
On February 10th, it was announced that 67 people were detained in Russia, 47 of whom are Ukrainian citizens, on the charges of creating an international drug syndicate. The Russian side says that in 2015 an online shop, "Khimprom," was organized by people residing in Ukraine to sell narcotics to Russia.
To recruit participants, advertisements were placed in large quantities in the Ukrainian media with employment offers at high-paying jobs such as couriers and freight forwarders in Russia. The recruiting points were supposedly located in Kyiv.
According to the news agency Ukrainski Novyny, the Department for Combating Human Trafficking of the National Police of Ukraine believes that around 400 to 1800 Ukrainians have been arrested and convicted in Russia after being recruited as drug couriers.