Former acting culture minister: Staff could not detect fraudulent requests without special expertise

Former acting Culture Minister Rostyslav Karandieiev has said that, as head of the ministry, he signed letters to the State Border Guard Service seeking approval for Ukrainian artists to travel abroad, but that some of those requests later turned out to be fraudulent.

"My involvement in this case is very simple – at one time, as head of the ministry, I signed letters on behalf of the Culture Ministry to the State Border Guard Service requesting approval for Ukrainian artists to travel abroad. As it turned out, among the legitimate requests there were also fraudulent ones," Karandieiev said in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that, unfortunately, ministry employees could not distinguish such requests without special expertise.

"And therefore it is good that the bodies with the appropriate legal and professional capacity became involved and managed to expose the criminals," Karandieiev added.

Karandieiev served as first deputy culture minister from July 2020 and as acting minister from July 2023 to September 2024.

Earlier on Tuesday, prosecutors from the Prosecutor General's Office said they had served a notice of suspicion on a Ukrainian woman who, while outside the country, organized a scheme to illegally smuggle men of draft age across the state border under the guise of musicians. Officials of the Culture Ministry, including the former acting minister who approved the relevant facilitation letters for crossing the border, are being checked for involvement in the scheme. Law enforcement authorities said that 28 people left Ukraine under the scheme and have not returned.

As reported, the Culture Ministry sent 3,724 letters to the State Border Guard Service in 2023 requesting assistance with temporary travel abroad. At the same time, the ministry said it did not keep records of those who violated return requirements, although then-acting Culture Minister Rostyslav Karandieiev said that fewer than 1% of cultural figures who had been granted permission to leave the country failed to return.

In 2024, the Culture Ministry applied to the State Border Guard Service 2,744 times regarding border crossings by persons liable for military service. That year, 579 men did not return from abroad. In October 2024, then Culture Minister Mykola Tochytsky said that one in five cultural figures who travel abroad with permission from the Culture Ministry does not return.

In 2025, the Culture Ministry filed 1,300 requests with the State Border Guard Service regarding border crossings by persons liable for military service.