Customs officers put Odesa activist on the wanted list for importing cars for the military

Odesa activist Oleh Mykhailyk accused Lviv customs officers of putting him on the wanted list without any grounds because he was involved in the importation of cars into Ukraine in 2022 as a driver.

According to the activist, the cars were purchased by Lithuanian philanthropists and were intended for employees of the Saltov Territorial Center for the Kharkiv city of Kharkiv.

"On January 9, I was taken off the bus in Reni (a city on the border with Romania and Moldova in Odesa Oblast - ed.) because Lviv Customs put me on the wanted list almost three years after the events because we, together with our partners and Lithuanian brothers, were bringing cars to help the military," he said.

Oleh Mykhailyk said that he had written an explanation of what had happened and noted that he had informed all his acquaintances, politicians and diplomats about the incident.

"This is a big blow and damage to Ukraine's reputation, but there is no other way to deal with this internal enemy, and as many military friends have told me, "until we destroy the internal enemy, it is impossible to defeat the external enemy," the activist said.

In October 2024, Odesa-based civic activist Oleh Mykhailyk won a case against Ukraine in the European Court of Human Rights. The court found that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies had ineffectively investigated the case of an attempt on his life, which violated the European Convention on Human Rights.

Oleh Mykhailyk was assassinated on September 22, 2018 in Odesa when he was shot at, resulting in his clinical death. The bullet that remained in his left lung was removed only four months later. Three people are suspected of the assassination attempt, but the masterminds have not yet been identified. The case was suspended for some time, but reopened in 2020.

In Munich, Germany, Mykhailo underwent surgery to remove the bullet from his lung. It lasted almost 5 hours. On August 1, the Plichoplich Charitable Foundation opened the plichoplich-shop, the first charity shop in Ukraine, which has analogues in only 2 countries. Currently, only those IDPs who have been registered with the charity foundation's form without any mistakes can become its customers. Currently, these are 1.8 thousand people.

Кирило Бойко