An investigation by Slidstvo.Info has uncovered a scheme involving a police officer from Zakarpattia Oblast and border guards that facilitated the illegal crossing of Ukrainian men into Hungary. According to the investigation, approximately 20 men paid $20,000 each to cross the border illegally.

Among those who allegedly used the services were a designer, a former judge, an advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, and the husband of a footballer’s sister. All of them were connected through the phone number of the Zakarpattia police officer and two border crossing points from Ukraine to Hungary.

Slidstvo.Info journalists received from sources exclusive footage from CCTV cameras of an alleged violation of border crossing rules at the Kosyno checkpoint. The video has English subtitles.

“TOTALLY UNACCOUNTABLE”

In the Pecherskyi District Court on October 11, a hearing was held to determine the pre-trial restriction for the suspect, Yan Miksha, who is the deputy head of the preventive activities department of the Berehove District Police. Prosecutors allege that Miksha was involved in the illegal transfer of 20 military-age men across the Ukrainian border.

Yan Miksha

“Miksha personally ensured that border guards allowed these vehicles to pass without checking passengers’ documents or inspecting the transport. According to witness statements, each person paid at least $20,000 for the crossing. We have identified 20 individuals, totaling $400,000 in illegal earnings,” said prosecutor Roman Krupka during the court hearing.

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Calls from various regions of Ukraine were received by Miksha from men seeking ways to leave the country or from their relatives, according to data from mobile operators. The investigation also relies on information from witnesses, video footage from surveillance cameras at the Kosyno and Luzhanka border crossing points, and confirmation from the Hungarian side about the entry of military-age men after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Miksha’s lawyer, Roman Svystovych, argues that the evidence and grounds for the accusation are insufficient. 

“There is no evidence of the transfer of funds, whether $20,000 cited by the prosecution or other amounts. There are no documents other than the statements of individuals who specifically and exclusively claim to have transferred funds to persons they cannot identify. There is no evidence linking the suspect to the individuals who crossed the border. Regarding the grounds and formation of the accusation, we believe it is unfounded and lacks qualifying features under this article,” Svystovych stated during the hearing.

Miksha denied any involvement in the transfer of individuals across the border when asked by a Slidstvo.Info journalist, stating, “Absolutely not.” He refused further comment.

The court ordered the policeman to be held in custody or to post bail of 2,200,000 hryvnias ($53,091). Sources within law enforcement agencies indicate that bail was posted for Miksha approximately a week after the pre-trial restriction was chosen.

Miksha has been suspended from his duties during the investigation, according to the press service of the Zakarpattia Oblast Police. They declined to comment further on the case.

“CUSTOMERS” OF THE POLICE OFFICER

The investigation revealed that various individuals, including judges, Yanukovych era officials, and businessmen, were in contact with Miksha during the early months of the full-scale invasion.

As soon as the illegal crossing scheme started working, one of the first people to contact Miksha, according to the investigation, was Kyiv-based designer Hayk Avanesyan.

Hayk Avanesyan / Photo: armenpress.am

On March 6, 2022, Avanesyan’s wife, Yulia Pyrkha, crossed the border with her mother and sister at the Luzhanka crossing point in Zakarpattia Oblast. Interestingly, only three women were registered crossing the border, but four people entered Hungary. The fourth passenger was Yulia’s husband, the same 33-year-old designer, Hayk Avanesyan. Yulia has been posting photos and videos from different countries on social media since February 2022: Poland, Italy, Austria, Armenia, and the last video she shared a year ago was from Jordan, in which Avanesyan himself poses next to her. 

Mobile operators recorded a conversation between Avanesyan and Miksha on the day of the border crossing, indicating that Miksha likely brought Avanesyan to a village near the Luzhanka crossing point. After that, Hayk’s phone was in roaming.

On the same day, March 6, Ihor Yushko, a former finance minister under premier Anatoliy Kinakh and advisor to Viktor Yanukovych, crossed the border at the Kosyno crossing point. His last Ukrainian job was chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia in Ukraine. Yushko, who was 61 at the time and could legally leave the country, crossed the border alone in his car but entered Hungary with two additional passengers, his 33-year-old son Stanislav and his 48-year-old bodyguard named Dmytro.

Ihor Yushko

Yushko Jr. has a business – a 3D visualization studio, the address of the office, which is listed on the company’s website, is Prague. Slidstvo.info journalists called Stanislav under the guise of a customer of the studio and asked for a personal meeting in Prague.

Stanislav Yushko

“I am currently living in Barcelona for personal reasons, but I will be in Prague in about 2-3 weeks. I don’t know how much time pressure you are under, how important it is,” says Stanislav Yushko. 

A few days later, journalists called Yushko Jr. again, without the legend, to get a comment:

“How did you get abroad during the full-scale invasion?”

“I left much earlier and why should I answer you at all.”

“With regard to your father, Ihor Yushko, there are charges that he illegally took you and his manager to Hungary in March 2022.”

“Excuse me, these are bare suspicions.”

On this late night, border guard Roman Makukh was off duty at the Kosyno checkpoint, according to prosecutors. He instructed another border guard, who was officially working that day, not to inspect Ihor Yushko’s car. 

Yushko Sr.’s Ford Transit, Kosyno checkpoint, Zakarpattia Oblast, March 7, 2022 (CCTV screenshot provided to Slidstvo.Info)

Makukh probably took the documents from the driver, Yushko Sr. and took them to the passport officer, then returned them. Probably, Yushko Jr. and the bodyguard Dmytro, who were also in the car, were not registered. Border guard Makukh is charged with having “overlooked” 17 men of mobilization age who were leaving Ukraine for Hungary.

During the election of a pre-trial restriction, border guard Roman Makukh and his defense lawyers refused to comment on the case. A week later, they were not ready to talk to journalists either.

Roman Makukh, October 21 in Pechersk court

Mobile operators, according to prosecutors, recorded a call from football player Andriy Shevchenko’s sister Olena to police officer Miksha a few days before he left for abroad. She is married to Andriy Vasiurenko, who was 50 years old in 2022. The official investigation claims that on March 20, Olena Shevchenko and her mother crossed the Ukrainian border. Vasiurenko also left Ukraine, but as an “invisible man” in a car driven by his wife. He became “visible” the same day at the Hungarian checkpoint.

Olena Shevchenko with her brother, footballer Andriy Shevchenko

Olena Shevchenko told journalists that she did not know Yan Miksha:

“I don’t understand what you’re asking me at all. I have not traveled anywhere. I am at home. In Kyiv, in Ukraine. I can’t understand where you got this information from. My husband and I are in Ukraine.”

“And you did not leave on March 20, 2022?”

“We did not leave anywhere at all.”

In May 2022, Olena’s brother, footballer Andriy Shevchenko, posted a photo with Olena on his Instagram page. He indicated the location as Milan, Italy. And he captioned it: “Finally met with my family. My mom and sister stayed in Kyiv for a month since the beginning of the war. And then they traveled a long and difficult way to Italy (because they were not allowed to enter the UK with dogs, and we have two). I am happy to hug them! We believe that very soon we will be together at home in our hometown Kyiv.” 

About a minute into the conversation, Olena Shevchenko was already suggesting that her husband, Andriy Vasiurenko, had crossed the border but had the appropriate documents: “What does this have to do with my husband, who is not a civil servant, has never held any position in his life, what questions can be asked of him? If my husband crossed the border, he had all the documents to do so.”

Andriy Vasiurenko

“IT ALL COMES FROM THE SAME SWILL-CAN”

The so-called list of potential “customers” of police officer Yan Miksha includes former head of the Constitutional Court Oleksandr Tupytskyi, who is facing a criminal case for bribing a witness and giving false testimony. He is currently in Vienna.

Oleksandr Tupytskyi

The prosecution claims that in March 2022, three men: Oleksandr Tupytskyi, Ivan Bondarenko, and Dmytro Omelchuk came to Zakarpattia Oblast with their families. On March 17, all three met in the village of Yanoshi, Berehove district, near the Helicon Hotel. A local driver and two policemen, one of whom was Yan Miksha, also arrived there.

On the same day, the former head of the Constitutional Court arrived at the Ukrainian border at the Kosyno checkpoint in a white Toyota car.

According to the investigation, there was a driver and three passengers in the car – Tupytskyi, Bondarenko and Omelchuk, who are already known to us. According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine at the checkpoint, only the driver of the car was actually registered, without passengers. On the other hand, the three passengers were registered by the Hungarian side.

Tupytskyi’s wife and children, as the prosecutors noted in the courtroom, waited until her husband crossed the border and then left Ukraine in her car with the children and their nanny.

Oleksandr Tupytskyi is suspected of smuggling people across the state border of Ukraine in complicity with members of an organized group. However, the former judge believes that he crossed the border legally and did not “transfer any men of mobilization age”. Slidstvo.info journalists managed to talk with Oleksandr Tupytskyi by phone:

“The investigation is ongoing and I don’t know what information I can say. I have not been interrogated.”

“There are charges that you illegally crossed the border and there were two other men of mobilization age with you.”

“The charges were served illegally, outside the procedure of international assistance, as provided by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. I did not commit this crime. All I can explain is that these are absolute fabrications, they are absolutely meaningless. These cases come out of the same swill-can, where they are falsified from the very beginning. Crossing the border is an administrative offense. But the fact that I was transferring two people is all fiction, I had no such need. My wife and I were crossing the border at the same time, so it didn’t matter whether it was by car or not.”

From 2022 to the present, Tupytskyi has been living in Vienna: “I am in Vienna, everyone knows my address.”

The question remains: who else was involved in this illegal border crossing scheme, as only a district police officer and a few border guards have been officially implicated so far.

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