The key facts
- A 37-year-old Ukrainian entered into a marriage with his girlfriend's 52-year-old mother in order to leave the country
- The couple was stopped at the border with Moldova at the Mohyliv-Podilskyi checkpoint; the spouses contradicted each other in their statements
- The man was turned back, and the materials were handed over to the police under the article on illegal transportation of people across the border
The scheme was exposed at a checkpoint
In Ukraine, a 37-year-old man entered into an official marriage with the 52-year-old mother of his girlfriend in order to leave the country posing as an escort for his disabled wife. The scheme was reported by Ukraine's State Border Guard Service: the couple was stopped at the Mohyliv-Podilskyi checkpoint on the border with Moldova. By the time of the check, the marriage had existed for only three months.
The cover story fell apart during questioning
The 'newlyweds' assured border guards that they were bound by genuine love and that the 15-year age difference did not hinder their family happiness. However, when asked about the history of their acquaintance and life together, the spouses began to get confused in their answers and contradict each other. In the end, the man admitted that his companion was not a wife he loved but the mother of his actual sweetheart, and that he had entered into the marriage solely for the opportunity to leave Ukraine while circumventing the current restrictions.
Consequences and context
The man was turned back at the border, and materials on the suspected scheme were handed over to the police for examination under the article on illegal transportation of people across the state border. Life.ru also recalls a previously described case: a Ukrainian named Stas said that after being detained by TCC (military enlistment office) officers, he escaped from a barracks in Lviv by faking an injury and spent eight days making his way through the Carpathians to Romania, fleeing mobilization. The editorial team notes that both episodes illustrate how varied the exit schemes checked by border guards are — however, the scale of such practices cannot be assessed from a single source.
