The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine effectively uses SafeBorder software to detect fake Covid certificates.

Electronic verification of COVID-19 certificates confirming vaccination of citizens, negative test results or recovery from the disease, the border guards began to apply in August 2021.

Since the beginning of the application of this software border guards have already checked more than 1 million digital COVID-certificates when processing citizens to enter Ukraine.

Citizens use them most often when crossing the border at checkpoints on the western section of the border and at airports in the capital.

Since the end of September, border guards have found 675 fake certificates during an inspection. In all cases of revealing signs of criminal offence under Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine "Falsification of documents, seals, stamps and forms, sale or use of forged documents, seals and stamps" the reports were sent to the National Police.

Only for the last day the border guards scanned more than 12.6 thousand QR codes. The majority of these certificates were checked at checkpoints on the western border - 5061 and 5413 – at airports in the capital. Fifteen certificates were found to be fake during the day.

It should be mentioned that the SafeBorder software has been developed by the EU Trust Network in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

In order to check it, it is enough for the border guard to scan the QR-code of the certificate provided by the citizens and get the confirmation of the document status on the screen of an electronic device. Scanning of a QR code takes only several seconds, which greatly speeds up the control and helps to detect fakes effectively.

It is worth noting that the program is being constantly updated according to the expansion of the list of countries connected to the trust network of digital COVID certificates or refinements to improve the system.