The Internal Affairs Ministry of Ukraine has said Ukrainian citizens who were detained in Russia in the case on international drug syndicate are victims of human traffickers.

We are talking about Ukrainians, who went to work to Russia and were recruited for these criminal activities, the press service of the Interior Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine on Saturday.

"The National Police and the Interior Ministry are constantly fighting against the organized groups of traffickers. There are hundreds of our citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation, who at various times were victims of human traffickers... They are represented in the Russian Federation not as victims of trafficking, but as members of an organized criminal group," the Interior Ministry's press service said on Saturday.

However, in such cases it is very difficult to prove that we are dealing with human trafficking, and it is difficult to return people to their homeland, even to serve prison sentences, the press service said.

Therefore, the Interior Ministry of Ukraine called on Ukrainians not to seek easy money abroad.

On Friday, February 10, Russian media reported with reference to the Russian Interior Ministry that they uncovered an international drug cartel KhimProm, one of the centers of which was located in Kyiv. A total of 67 people were arrested in this case in Russia, including 47 Ukrainian citizens. The Russian Interior Ministry claimed that there were special recruiting points in Kyiv and advertisements with offer of high-paid couriers jobs in Russia were placed in Ukrainian newspapers.

On Saturday, February 11, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it expects the Russian Federation to confirm the information about the detention of 47 Ukrainians in the framework of the international drug syndicate case.

Kyiv sent queries to the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Investigative Department of the Russian Interior Ministry asking for the information about Ukrainian citizens among the detainees, the charges against them, the place of their confinement and the availability of a lawyer," the Consular Service Department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine said in a statement on its Facebook page.