From the start of the full-scale Russian invasion until August 31, 2023, 19,740 Ukrainian men illegally crossed the border into neighboring countries to avoid military service. We are talking about men of conscription age — from 18 to 60 years old.
Such data are given by journalists of the British television and radio broadcasting corporation BBC with reference to data from Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia regarding illegal crossing of borders.
The journalists note that they do not know how the Ukrainian men managed to leave the country, but they do know what methods were used by the other 21,113 men who were detained by Ukrainian border guards. Thus, 14,313 people tried to cross the border on foot or by swimming, and the remaining 6,800 used forged documents, in which fictitious reasons for leaving, such as invented illnesses, were indicated, the BBC reports with reference to data from the Ukrainian authorities.
The representative of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in the Ukrainian parliament, Fedir Venislavskyi, noted that the number of evaders does not exceed 5% of men.
"They are definitely not of decisive importance for the defense of Ukraine. I am convinced: the stability and willingness of Ukrainians to defend their independence, sovereignty and freedom is 95-99%," he said.
- Last month, the spokesman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, said in a commentary to Radio Liberty that border guards detained approximately 30 people who tried to illegally leave Ukraine outside official checkpoints.