Romania will wait: a she-bear explained to a Kyiv resident that the border isn't there

In the Carpathians a female bear unexpectedly helped border guards stop a border violator. The unusual incident on May 30 2026 was reported by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

According to the border guards, a resident of Kyiv decided to illegally cross the state border toward Romania. To do this he charted a route through the mountains, of course outside official crossing points – probably expecting that at night in the mountains he would find only silence, freedom and a short road to “a new life”. But the plan did not go so smoothly. During the night crossing the man unexpectedly encountered a female bear. After that, the route had to be urgently adjusted – not toward Romania anymore, but upward, to a tree.

To avoid danger, the Kyiv resident climbed a tree and from there called for help. The irony of the situation is that those whom he had apparently tried to avoid meeting came to rescue him – the border guards. Service members of the Mukachevo detachment promptly arrived in response to the call. By that time the bear had already left the scene, having done its part of the “border work”. The man was safely taken down from the tree and delivered to the unit. An administrative report was drawn up against him.

Thus, the night’s hike through the mountains ended for the violator not with a border crossing, but with an encounter with wild nature, the border guards, and the law.

Earlier we wrote:

• Fake marriage for $9000: in Mykolaiv region a woman with a disability was drawn into a scheme for a draft dodger
• In Odesa region, a crook for $6,000 led conscripts through fields to Moldova
• Gas pipe, trunks and fake certificates: the SBU busted 8 organizers of draft-dodging schemes
• Fake children – real dollars: a scheme to get men out of Ukraine was exposed
• Abroad under the cover of a “prosecutor”: in Odesa region a scheme to help those liable for military service flee was uncovered