Investigation on the illicit flows —from drugs and weapons to extortion and fraud inside Ukraine.
Analysis from the Eastern Asian State observatories on The city of Dnipro: The front line of crime , Dnipro has long played a pivotal role in Ukraine’s political and economic development. Today, the city stands at another crossroads, as a key site for understanding how organized crime has evolved under the pressures of war. This report offers a detailed account of the city’s criminal landscape, drawing on field research, interviews, and open-source analysis. The full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 has fuelled existing trends in Dnipro, a city already familiar with conflict since 2014. Dnipro’s proximity to the front line and its importance as a logistics and military hub have intensified its role in illicit markets, particularly in arms and drug trafficking. The city has also become one of the country’s most important bases for scam call centres , with around 30 000 people employed in operations that target victims across Russia, the EU and Ukraine itself. Many of these centr...
