The Government of kyiv has ordered its embassies and consulates to stop providing service to Ukrainians living abroad of enlistment age. The measure became effective this Tuesday and implies the cancellation of administrative procedures such as the renewal of passports or other consular procedures for compatriots between the ages of 18 and 60. It will only issue them the necessary documents to return to Ukrainian territory.
In practice, Volodymyr Zelensky's Executive is looking for a way for thousands of people who have left in the last two years to return to the country in order to avoid their recruitment and being sent to the front. It makes residence or the possibility of working very difficult for those who remain determined to stay out of the war with Russia.
The order has been announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmitri Kuleba, and its implementation has already begun. In Spain, the Barcelona consulate has stopped carrying out any type of procedure, except in exceptional cases included in the ordinance itself, for the military-age group. In Poland the cancellation has also been notified. The Kiev Government's remote document issuance service has stopped processing passports due to a “technical failure.”
Poland, Germany or Spain
The consequences are important. Poland, Spain, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Turkey are the countries where the most Ukrainian identity cards and passports are registered. The German Government alone has welcomed one million refugees from the former Soviet republic and 190,000 are between 18 and 60 years old. In the Spanish case, the purchase of homes by Russian and Ukrainian citizens skyrocketed by 50% and 40%, respectively, in the first half of 2023. It is striking that the second group acquired 1,758 properties compared to the 77 that bought in the first half of 2009. The idea that many Ukrainians have settled in Spain is undoubtedly gaining strength.
If the trend is multiplied by the rest of the countries, it is possible to deduce the enormous volume of Ukrainian candidates for recruitment who remain abroad and whom their Government is not willing to give up at a time when it needs half a million new soldiers as minimum. The president of the NATO Military Committee himself, Rob Bauer, recently urged mobilization at the Kiev Security Forum, since “not only grenades are needed,” but “people to replace the dead and wounded,” Baur said. , aware of how “difficult it is to convince people in a liberal democracy.” And even less, possibly, with these types of arguments.
The Ukrainian population, especially the youth, has become reluctant to take up arms. Thousands of civilians do not even leave their homes except on rare occasions to avoid being called up by a street patrol. The harshness of the front, the vision of the terrible wounds and mutilations generated by the war and the suspicion that those killed fighting Russia are many more than the Government admits have reduced recruitment to minimum levels. And to aggravate the situation, the army has a significant deficit in infantry troops. The fierce resistance to the advance of the invaders – who little by little have conquered several towns in Donbas – has decimated the local brigades, lacking weapons and logistics. There is not a single commander on the front who does not demand more soldiers.
The Foreign Minister has expressed his discomfort at the fact that “someone stays abroad but wants to receive services from this State”, while many other citizens “fight and give their lives on the front for the same State”. “This is not like that, it doesn't work like that.”
“The stay abroad does not exempt the citizen from his duties towards the country and the main priority is to defend it against destruction,” highlights Kuleba, who elaborates on the idea that those people who have taken refuge abroad “demonstrate to the State that they do not care about their survival”, so they must be incapacitated to “receive services.” In his opinion, the order to suspend consular relations with this group does not represent a punishment, but rather an attempt to “reestablish the correct attitude among men” who resist enlisting.
Swim leaks
During the two long years of war with Russia, the authorities have seen how thousands of young men have left the country, despite there being a law that prohibits all citizens between 18 and 60 years of age from doing so. Some carried out the exodus at the beginning, mixed with the women, the elderly and children who emigrated en masse across the border with Poland to escape the Russian bombs. Others have abandoned him on work trips (which were only one way), presenting false exit permits or through bribes, influence or other tricks. This explains why the acquisition of houses will grow in 2023, for example, in Spain.
There have been cases of compatriots who have fled by swimming, crossing the Tisza River to Romania. Last year, the Border Guard detained almost 8,000 men who tried to cross the muga illegally and 3,000 who hoped to leave through checkpoints with falsified documents. Added to them are the thousands of Ukrainians who were already living abroad for study or work reasons before February 2022 and who have ignored the calls for martial law.
The restriction on consular services is part of a broader regulation, approved a few weeks ago to increase military mobilization in the country and which will come into full force in May. The Government hopes to increase the armed forces with hundreds of thousands of new soldiers.
The law reduces the recruitment age from 27 to 25 years, lowers the requirements to be exempt from taking up arms and simplifies procedures for the benefit of express enlistment. For those who are within the military age and reside in other countries, a labyrinth opens up. Apart from the fact that they will not be able to renew their passport or other documents, the law requires them to update their personal information within sixty days of its entry into force in the military registration offices of their regions of origin.
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