Majority of prostitution arrests in Sweden in March involved Ukrainian women 

A Swedish police operation that swept up 38 men visiting prostitutes found that 30 of them had paid to sleep with exploited Ukrainian women, some of whom were refugees from the war.

‘Operation Cod’, conducted in March, made the shocking discovery that Ukrainian women, often fleeing their homeland alone or with children, were being exploited and trafficked to Sweden to work as prostitutes. 

‘It’s startling,’ police inspector Simon Häggström told broadcaster SVT. 

‘It can be clear from the ads that the women have recently come from Ukraine, but these men do not care,’ 

‘More or less all the women we spoke to say that it is the war that has led to prostitution. You have no choice but to sell your body to help your families who are in Ukraine or who are on the run,’ Häggström added.

An ex-British army soldier talks to a Ukrainian refugee mother and child at the Polish/Ukraine boarder. (His face has been pixellated to protect his privacy)

Häggström said that many of the women are lured by sex traffickers to Sweden via adverts on the internet that promise cash and accommodation in exchange for working as prostitutes.

‘The traffickers attract [women] with package solutions where they pay for travel and accommodation. 

‘Then there are so-called operators who act as intermediaries between the women and the sex buyers. Everything is very organized,’ inspector Häggström said. 

The war in Ukraine caused a huge surge in migration and displacement as over four million Ukrainians have fled their homeland as refugees, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR – mostly women and children, as men were expected to stay. 

This has created chaotic conditions at border crossings and train stations with neighbouring countries such as Poland which are ideal of sex traffickers to operate in.

Shirin Tinnesand, refugee and migration coordinator at the NGO said that Ukrainian refugees are at risk of being exposed to human trafficking, prostitution, organ donation. 

‘Only imagination sets the limits.’

Ukrainian refugees arriving at a welcome and information hall in the port of Nynashamn, about 60 km south of Stockholm, Sweden. Many sex traffickers dress like humanitarian workers to blend in and operate undetected.

‘It is a fact that people smugglers pretend to be volunteers who go to places where it is chaotic and where there is no clear organization and the more people who come, the more inconspicuous it becomes and with it easier for smugglers and criminal organizations to operate,’ Tinnesand said.  

Tinnesand claims that video footage seen by her organisation appears to show a man wearing a yellow vest with a volunteer written on his back approaching Ukrainian women at the main train station in Krakow, Poland and offering them free food and accommodation for a year if they board a ‘special bus’ to Germany.

‘We can’t say that he’s a trafficker, but that’s often how they work, that they come to collection areas and strategically seek out single women, young women,’ Tinnesand said.

She added that many of them dress like humanitarian workers to blend in and operate undetected.

‘It is a fact that people smugglers pretend to be volunteers who go to places where it is chaotic and where there is no clear organization and the more people who come, the more inconspicuous it becomes and with it easier for smugglers and criminal organizations to operate,’ Tinnesand said.

With Putin’s war in Ukraine entering a new phase and the Ukrainian government ordering all civilians to leave the Donbass, the flow of refugees into Europe will not relax any time soon. 

‘He promised me a new life in the US’ 

A Ukrainian refugee has described how she narrowly escaped the clutches of an American trafficker posing as a UN volunteer.

Margaerita Plotnick was with her mother and teenage cousin when she was approached at a refugee reception centre by the stranger who offered to take her to the US.

It was only when the suspicious 25-year-old waitress secretly checked US entry requirements for Ukrainian refugees that she discovered the stranger was lying.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday after travelling to Ireland, Margaerita said: ‘I had a lucky escape. I could have been a victim of this predator.’

Margaerita was approached after 33 days of Russian bombardment and a shortage of food and water forced her to leave her home in Kharkiv.

Safe at last: Margaerita Plotnick (pictured) found sanctuary in Ireland 

When she and her family members arrived at the Polish border, they were taken by bus to a sprawling industrial site on the outskirts of Przemysl, which has been converted into a reception centre for refugees.

They were excited to be offered accommodation in the Irish city of Limerick after registering. ‘We thought we were safe,’ she said.

But Margaerita was approached by ‘George’, a 44-year-old Russian-speaker with a US passport who told her he ran an import and export business in America.

‘He was wearing a yellow jacket like the other volunteers and he had an official wristband which meant he had been vetted to provide transportation,’ said Margaerita. ‘He told me he was from the UN.’

She said George’s initially affable charm changed when she declined his offer. ‘We refused but he wouldn’t stop asking,’ she said.

Margaerita alerted a volunteer at a centre help desk, who challenged the stranger.

‘George’ was escorted out by security and has been banned from all humanitarian centres in Poland. The US embassy is investigating.