Investigators send to court case on farm with slaves in Odesa region

Investigators of the Dnipropetrovs'k Regional Prosecutor's Office have sent an indictment to court against a group of people on the fact of recruitment and movement of people for labor exploitation.

This was reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Investigators said that a couple and two residents of the Dnipro region organized an illegal mechanism for recruiting socially vulnerable people to keep them in labor slavery on the territory of their farm.

The defendants searched for people without a permanent place of residence, in particular at railway stations, and then transported them to Odesa region by deception and psychological influence, promising free housing, food and employment.

Between March and July 2025, they recruited six people. In fact, the victims were settled in a former farmhouse converted into a dormitory with inadequate conditions and forced to perform heavy agricultural work for free: cleaning up after cattle and harvesting seasonal crops.

In order to control the victims, the defendants confiscated their documents and means of communication, and if the victims tried to escape, they used psychological pressure and threatened them with physical violence. In July 2025, law enforcement officers exposed the illegal activities.

In early December 2025, the Odesa Regional Prosecutor's Office notified three members of the criminal group of suspicion of illegally transporting Ukrainian orphans and children deprived of parental care to another country for future adoption. They produced forged documents, facilitated the adoption of illegal decisions by guardianship authorities and organized the departure of children abroad, receiving monetary rewards from foreign citizens through international payment systems.

Кирило Бойко