More than 6.2 million refugees from Ukraine moved to Europe and other states after the Russian military aggression against Ukraine (the war) began in February 2022. Against this background, trafficking in human beings (THB) appears to be a (trans)national problem in Ukraine. In contrast to this assumption, formally declared statistics related to these crimes in Ukraine are limited to a small number of registered criminal proceedings. According to our criminological hypothesis, THB crimes are often of a transnational and organised nature. However, Ukraine seems to demonstrate a deeply incorrect representation of THB crimes in police and court statistics, as THB crimes tend to be described as being committed by individuals rather than organised crime groups. Corruption may be a hidden but influential enabler of human trafficking, our findings show. Consequently, one can presume that the true number of THB crimes is higher than what the police statistics show. At the beginning of the war, especially, border restrictions obstructed existing patterns of human trafficking on the one hand, but opened up new opportunities for traffickers on the other. We also consider the increase in satellite crimes, such as pimping or engaging a person in prostitution. Therefore, the reshaping of THB crimes—from ‘export supply’ to ‘internal supply’—is analysed.
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