Russian resettlers and residents of the CIS began to buy fake Ukrainian passports and other documents on the black market.
As the russian publication Fontanka reports, a huge number of offers to buy a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, a foreign passport, a birth certificate and other Ukrainian documents have appeared on the Internet. Prices for documents vary from several thousand rubles to USD 10,000. Sellers promise a biometric passport of a citizen of Ukraine and "absolutely clean" internal documents with all the necessary marks.
"The passport is made from the original forms. We enter the data into the state register through well-connections, you receive the Identification Number of Taxpayer (INT) and the birth certificate, which is also entered into the registry of the Registration of Acts of Civil Status bodies. The series and number of the passport are printed with a perforation printer. All the necessary stamps will be on the pages," the publication quotes one of the announcements about the purchase of the document.
The author of the investigation contacted illegal sellers under the guise of a resettler living in Georgia. According to the legend, in russia, the girl was issued with protocols for "discrediting the russian army" and for all kinds of rallies, so she needs a document to obtain a residence permit in a European Union country.
As a result, the investigator received three offers: a biometric passport for USD 9,000, a fake birth certificate and a Ukrainian foreign passport for EUR 2,350, and the third seller offered a complete package of documents. In the last offer, the seller did not name the price, but demanded an advance payment of USD 1,000.
It turned out that a "male" passport is cheaper than a "female" one, and residents of Turkey and Syria constantly use similar services to obtain a residence permit in EU countries.
Fontanka was able to find the owner of the forged documents, who moved to Latvia with them and received a residence permit. For USD 2,500, she received a Ukrainian foreign passport and a birth certificate. The documents were mailed to her a few weeks after the payment. Her acquaintances helped her find sellers of fake documents.
"I moved with the flow of Ukrainian refugees. She said that she lost her passport on the way. The conversation with the border guards was the most terrifying. But nothing happened, they checked, they let into," she said, but later deleted all messages due to fears for her safety.
Migration lawyer Anna Adaievska reported that it is impossible to forge a biometric passport, but it is quite possible to cross the border using other forged documents.
"In the countries of the post-Soviet space, everything is bought for money, for acquaintances. What is unacceptable here, in russia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Ukraine - more than possible," she said.
The lawyer added that it is difficult to verify the authenticity of the certificate in the Ukrainian state authorities, as they do not respond to russian requests, but it is possible to cross the border of the European Union, declaring that the internal passport was lost, instead there is a birth certificate and a foreign passport.
"This option is quite real, especially if you cross the border in the flow of refugees," the lawyer notes.
In turn, another migration lawyer, Roman Stepanov, told RBC that in his practice, a similar situation did not occur, and Ukrainian documents in the russian federation "are literally checked under a magnifying glass." He noted that in Europe, documents will be checked very closely, and similar stories with fake passports may be artificial.
Independent migration expert and demographer Ihor Yefremov added that until 2022, it was possible to obtain Moldovan citizenship, but not Ukrainian citizenship, on the basis of forged documents.
Ukraine and the European Union signed an agreement on the introduction of a visa-free regime in the spring of 2018. Ukrainians can enter all Schengen zone countries without a visa if they have biometric passports.
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