Four Ukrainian citizens have been detained in Poland. According to investigators, they kidnapped African migrants in Poland and Latvia and demanded ransom for them.

This is reported by the Polish media outlet Rzeczpospolita.

Three people were arrested: 24-year-old Vladislav M., 20-year-old Oleksandr S., and 41-year-old Elizaveta S. Another, 35-year-old Mykhailo R., who “only helped transport migrants”, is not being held in custody. All of the defendants have been legally residing in Poland for the past five years.

In the Polish city of Lubin on June 14, 2025, two naked men emerged from the bushes. They were frightened, disoriented, squatting on the asphalt, with tape residue on their necks and arms. It turned out that they were migrants from Ethiopia who had fled from kidnappers who were demanding ransom from their families.

The criminals threatened that if their demands were not met, the victims would be killed and their organs sold. The messages contained photos of naked, bound men and screenshots of conversations in Russian with demands for a ransom in cryptocurrency. The criminals demanded a significant sum of 30 000 Tether tokens (₴1.25 million) from the relatives of the kidnapped Ethiopians. They later lowered their demand because the kidnapped men did not come from wealthy families.

Polish investigators identified those responsible for the kidnapping, but they managed to leave for Lithuania before being arrested. Meanwhile, police found evidence that the same criminal group was involved in another kidnapping on June 24, of three Malian citizens in Latvia. These victims were also treated with extreme cruelty: they were tied up, bags were pulled over their heads, and they were beaten.

Thanks to communication with law enforcement agencies in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, the kidnappers were detained when they returned to Poland on June 25. According to the investigation, the Ukrainian citizens were involved in transporting illegal migrants to Western Europe. At some point, the defendants decided that they could earn more if they kidnapped the foreigners they were transporting and their families paid the ransom.

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