Transnistrian security forces interrogate fleeing Ukrainians for military secrets

Ukrainian men fleeing conscription are paying thousands of dollars to smugglers to escape the country—only to be intercepted and interrogated in Moldova’s Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, where security agents appear to be extracting sensitive military information, according to an investigation by Slidstvo.Info, the OCCRP’s member center in Ukraine.

“The organizers took a large number of men and tried to transport them in such large groups — more than 40 men — to the territory of a neighboring country,” said Yuliia Halytska of Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service. “The cost of such trips ranged from $5,000 to $20,000 or even more per person.”

A journalist from Slidstvo.Info, posing as a woman seeking to smuggle her husband out of Ukraine, contacted men who had already crossed through Transnistria—the region that declared independence from Moldova in 1991 but no member of the United Nations has recognized it yet—which borders Ukraine. Russia maintains a military presence there and supports it politically and economically.

Fifteen fugitives described to Slidstvo how they were detained and pressured by local security forces upon arrival in the unrecognized republic.

“They put all kinds of pressure on you in the office,” one man said. “They ask where the military units are, where the air defence is located.”

Others said interrogators demanded detailed personal information, including military contacts, family members, and phone numbers. “They rummage through your phone, looking for info about the war. It’s better to clean everything up there. They are not interested in anything else,” said another.

“I was subjected to brutal interrogations,” one man recalled. “It seemed very likely it was the FSB [Russia’s Federal Security Service]. They asked about military equipment. It’s difficult for any man from Ukraine to prove he’s not a soldier. They asked, ‘Okay, if you’re not in the military, then who are your friends in the military?’”

All the men said they were first held by border guards or taken directly to a local police department, where they were kept in cells before being interrogated by the so-called Ministry of State Security (MSS) of Transnistria. Five of the 15 believed their interrogators were agents of Russia’s FSB.

The MSS is headed by Valery Gebos, a former FSB officer. The agency includes intelligence, counterintelligence, and border control units, and operates in a region where Russian troops and a weapons depot remain in place.

Smugglers told Slidstvo.Info that passing through the MSS is unavoidable when crossing into Moldova via Transnistria. “The paperwork at the ministry is just a formality,” one organizer claimed—a claim flatly contradicted by those detained.

Ukrainian border authorities say the Transnistrian section is now the most commonly used route for illegal crossings due to poor enforcement on the Moldovan side. But Pavlo, a Ukrainian border official, said that Russia-backed Transnistria likely facilitates the crossings deliberately — and that its agents conduct “filtration” to collect intelligence on Ukraine’s military units and equipment.

“They choose this section because it’s poorly guarded on the other side,” he said. “Transnistria is fully funded by the Russian Federation, and I believe they receive direct instructions to let these people through.”

He confirmed that Ukrainian authorities are aware that “filtration” procedures are being conducted in Transnistria and that FSB agents may be collecting sensitive information about Ukraine’s military units and positions.