Ukraine state auctions seized underwear

Even debtors' underwear is sometimes seized in Ukraine

Underwear is among confiscated items up for auction in Ukraine, following raids on debtors and illegal traders.

Pants were seized in the central city of Kryvyi Rih and are advertised on a justice ministry website for online auctions, called Setam.

The starting price for one pair is 19.4 hryvnia (£0.50; $0.70).

There have also been cases of the state auctioning off cows and sheep. The Covid pandemic has raised the number of registered Ukrainian debtors above 2m.

The number of debtors grew by 300,000 last year, according to official data seen by BBC Ukrainian.

Setam told the BBC that the brand-new underwear seized in Kryvyi Rih came from an unlicensed stallholder. The seizure was "related to illegal business activity, not for debts", Setam manager Davyd Salakhutdinov explained.

There was indignation on Ukrainian social media last year when two confiscated pet dogs were put up for sale. And an MP, Yevgeniy Brahar, became the butt of jokes for suggesting that a hard-up pensioner should sell her dog in order to pay her bills.

Justice Minister Denis Malyuska later suggested that auctioning debtors' pet dogs made less sense than selling more valuable domesticated animals.

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This dog was put up for auction with a starting price of 75 hryvnia (£2; $3)

A report by the OECD economic think-tank in December says that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ukraine may face its worst recession in decades, leaving more than 9m of its 41m people in poverty.

And according to UN research, since the beginning of the pandemic more than 40% of Ukrainian families have seen at least one family member lose their job.

The official web-based system for auctioning debtors' property was launched in 2015, and the justice ministry says some 14.1bn hryvnia (£364m; $506m) of property has been sold on it so far.

The ministry also donates some property seized by the customs service to orphanages, hospitals and schools.

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Clarification and update 19 Feb 2021: This story originally referred to debtors' underwear and has been updated to include a response from Setam which made clear that this was new underwear seized from a stallholder because of illegal business activity.