Border guard charged with abuse of power for killing man in Odesa region

Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation have served a notice of suspicion to a serviceman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine who shot a man while he was trying to illegally cross the Ukrainian-Moldovan border.

This was reported to UNIAN by the State Bureau of Investigation's communications advisor Tetiana Sapian.

Currently, the border guard is charged with abuse of power, which caused serious consequences. If found guilty, the soldier faces imprisonment for a term of seven to ten years with disqualification to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years.

The man is in custody. The deceased was a 23-year-old Kharkiv resident who was carrying a passport for traveling abroad and personal belongings.

According to Tatiana Sapian, the tragedy occurred on September 1. The soldiers spotted the two men and started chasing them. They did not stop, so the border guards started shooting. The SBGS claimed that they were only firing warning shots. After that, one of the offenders was detained, and the other was found without signs of life. The man had a bullet wound.

This is not the first time that border guards have had to shoot to stop violators: in February, two Ukrainian citizens were detained by border guards of the Podilskyi detachment near the village of Pavlivka, Rozdilnyanskyi district, Odesa region, while trying to illegally cross the Transnistrian segment of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border. During the detention, the offenders, having heard the border guards' voice requests to stop, ran away. However, warning shots and the use of a sniffer dog, Dick, stopped them.

Also in January, in Odesa region, border guards detained three men from Kyiv wearing camouflage uniforms who were trying to illegally cross the border. Despite numerous requests from border guards to stop, the men tried to escape. They were detained only after warning shots were fired in the air.

Кирило Бойко