A Swedish police operation that swept up 38 men who visited prostitutes found that 30 of them had paid to sleep with exploited Ukrainian women, some of whom were refugees from the war.

“Operation Cod”, which was carried out in March, made the shocking discovery that Ukrainian women, who often flee their homeland alone or with children, were exploited and smuggled to Sweden to work as prostitutes.

– It is startling, says police inspector Simon Häggström to SVT.

“It is clear from the ads that the women have recently come from Ukraine, but these men do not care.”

– More or less all the women we talked to say that it is the war that has led to prostitution. You have no choice but to sell your body to help your families who are in Ukraine or who are on the run, Häggström added.

Photo: Suspected sex traffickers at the Polish / Ukrainian border at Medyka, Poland (their faces have been pixelated for legal reasons)

A former British army soldier talks to a Ukrainian refugee mother and a child at the Polish / Ukrainian border. (His face has been pixelated to protect his privacy)

Häggström said that many of the women are attracted to sex traffickers in Sweden via advertisements on the internet that promise cash and housing in exchange for them working as prostitutes.

“The smugglers are enticing [women] with package solutions where they pay for travel and accommodation.

– Then there are so-called operators who act as intermediaries between the women and the sex buyers. Everything is very organized, says Inspector Häggström.

The war in Ukraine caused a huge increase in migration and displacement as more than four million Ukrainians have fled their homeland as refugees, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR – mostly women and children, as men were expected to stay.

This has created chaotic conditions at border crossings and train stations with neighboring countries such as Poland, which are ideal for sex traders to operate in.

Shirin Tinnesand, refugee and migration coordinator at the NGO, said that Ukrainian refugees risk being exposed to human trafficking, prostitution, organ donation.

“Only the imagination sets the limits.”

Ukrainian refugees arriving at a welcome and information hall in Nynäshamn harbor, about 60 km south of Stockholm, Sweden. Many sex traffickers dress up as humanitarian workers to blend in and operate undetected.

“It is a fact that human traffickers pretend to be volunteers who go to places where it is chaotic and where there is no clear organization and the more people who come, the more insignificant it becomes and thus it is easier for smugglers and criminal organizations to operate. . , in Tinnesand.

Tinnesand claims that videos seen by her organization seem to show a man wearing a yellow vest with a volunteer written on his back as he approaches Ukrainian women at the central station in Krakow, Poland and offers them free food and accommodation for a year if they go on board a “special bus” to Germany.

“We can not say that he is a trafficker, but that is often how they work, that they come to collection areas and strategically seek out single women, young women,” said Tinnesand.

She added that many of them dress as humanitarian workers to blend in and work undetected.

“It is a fact that human traffickers pretend to be volunteers who go to places where it is chaotic and where there is no clear organization and the more people who come, the more insignificant it becomes and thus it is easier for smugglers and criminal organizations to operate. . , in Tinnesand.

With Putin’s war in Ukraine entering a new phase and the Ukrainian government ordering all civilians to leave Donbass, the flow of refugees to Europe will not relax any time soon.

“He promised me a new life in the United States”

A Ukrainian refugee has described how she barely escaped the clutches of an American trafficker who pretends to be a UN volunteer.

Margaerita Plotnick was with her mother and teenage cousin when she was contacted at a refugee reception center by the stranger who offered to take her to the United States.

It was only when the suspected 25-year-old waitress secretly checked the US entry requirements for Ukrainian refugees that she discovered that the stranger was lying.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday after traveling to Ireland, Margaerita said: “I had a happy escape. I could have fallen victim to this predator.”

Margaerita was contacted after 33 days of Russian bombing and lack of food and water forced her to leave her home in Kharkiv.

Finally safe: Margaerita Plotnick (pictured) found refuge in Ireland

When she and her family members arrived at the Polish border, they were taken by bus to a large industrial site on the outskirts of Przemysl, which has been converted into a reception center for refugees.

They were delighted to be offered accommodation in the Irish city of Limerick after registering. “We thought we were safe,” she said.

But Margaerita was contacted by “George”, a 44-year-old Russian-speaker with an American passport who told her he ran an import and export business in America.

“He was wearing a yellow jacket like the other volunteers and he had an official bracelet which meant he had been screened to provide transport,” Margaerita said. “He told me he was from the UN.”

She said George’s originally friendly charm changed when she declined his offer. “We refused but he did not want to stop asking,” she said.

Margaerita alerted a volunteer at a center help desk who challenged the stranger.

“George” was escorted out of the security service and has been suspended from all humanitarian centers in Poland. The US embassy is investigating.