Honeymoon ruined: the "groom" went abroad with two wives at once

State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported another story with “romance” at the border that looks less like a honeymoon trip and more like a failed attempt to pass control under the cover of a marriage. SBGSU reported this on June 8 2026.

According to the border guards, a 43-year-old resident of Donetsk region together with a 63-year-old resident of Zaporizhzhia region tried to leave Ukraine. The man explained that they had married and were heading on a tourist trip. At first glance – a standard story about newlyweds deciding to travel abroad. However, the “honeymoon” quickly began to lose its romantic shine already during the document check.

Border guards established that another woman was in the same car – the man’s common-law wife, with whom he actually lives. This detail made law enforcement officers doubt the sincerity of the new marriage. In other words, the scheme looked rather creative: a formal wife for crossing the border, a common-law wife for real life, and in the middle the “groom” himself, who, apparently, hoped that the border guards would not pay attention to such a family triangle in the cabin of one car.

The man, according to the SBGSU, insisted that he did not pay money for the marriage. According to him, the woman allegedly agreed to the marriage “out of a good heart”. It sounds almost like a melodrama, if not for one nuance: the event took place during a full-scale war, when any schemes to illegally get men out of the country carry not a romantic but a very specific legal implication.

Border guards notified the police about possible signs of an offense under Art. 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – illegal transfer of persons across the state border of Ukraine. Now the “honeymoon” is out of the question. Law enforcement must determine whether this marriage was truly a family matter or another attempt to use “private life” as a ticket across the border.

The irony of the situation is that the tourist trip story fell apart not because of a complex special operation, but because of a simple question: why is the common-law wife of the “groom” traveling with the “newlyweds”? And here, it seems, even the “good heart” did not help.

Previously we wrote:

• Romania can wait: a she-bear explained to a Kyiv resident that the border is not there
• Fake marriage for $9,000: in Mykolaiv region a woman with a disability was drawn into a scheme for a draft evader
• Marriage, disability and an ex-wife: a new escape scheme exposed at the border
• Fake “love” to flee: border officials exposed a 44-year-old man with his 80-year-old beloved mother-in-law
• Marriage to escape: how a Ukrainian woman “smuggled” servicemen abroad under the cover of a honeymoon