Ex-border guard chief Deyneko suspected in illegal border crossing scheme – NABU
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office exposed a scheme of systematic bribery at the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. The former head of the service and a current senior officer are suspected of receiving bribes to allow border crossings, according to NABU and SAPO.
Among the suspects are the former head of the State Border Guard Service, the head of a border crossing point department, and a former official of the service. Ukrainska Pravda previously reported, citing sources, that searches were conducted at the residence of Serhiy Deyneko, who headed the service until January 2026.
The investigation established that in 2023 a group of individuals organized the illegal transportation of cigarettes across Ukraine’s state border to the EU. Anti-corruption agencies say this was facilitated by top officials of the State Border Guard Service who regularly received bribes for it.
The scheme allegedly used vehicles registered in the Czech Republic and Austria fitted with special license plates resembling diplomatic ones.
Passengers in these cars were holders of diplomatic passports — family members of Ukrainian diplomats in Europe. Thanks to this, border and customs authorities in EU countries did not inspect the vehicles.
According to NABU detectives, the diplomats whose relatives participated in the scheme had previously served together with the top border service officials.
The border service officials themselves allegedly ensured unobstructed border crossing into and out of Ukraine. From July to November 2023 alone, border guards received about €204,000 in bribes for 68 vehicles — €3,000 per vehicle.
NABU also published recordings of conversations among the suspects. On them, in particular, the department head can be heard saying after a meeting in Kyiv with a senior NABU official — and receiving undue advantage from him — that he returned to his duty station in Zakarpattia Oblast and distributed the money among subordinates.
“(Border Guard colonel — ed. NABU) received 2,500 [dollars/euros], so you understand. I have 4,100 [dollars/euros]. You have 3,200 [dollars/euros]. According to the schedule,” the department head tells another State Border Guard Service serviceman.
In early January, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Deyneko from the post of head of the State Border Guard Service — at whose home and office NABU conducted searches on January 22, according to media reports. Before that he said that under his leadership the service “had made significant progress in development and strengthening,” but emphasized the need to change approaches in the agency’s work.
Later it was reported that Deyneko would become an adviser to the minister of internal affairs, and after a short rehabilitation he would be appointed commander of a combat unit of the State Border Guard Service.
Zelenskyy appointed Major General Valeriy Vavryniuk, Deyneko’s deputy, as acting head of the State Border Guard Service.