Men able-bodied are not allowed to leave Ukraine. Many are still fleeing possible conscription into the army. The government is now announcing measures.
Kyiv – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to take tougher action against deserters. He said in a video speech last week that all cases of decommissioning due to unfitness for service where there is a suspicion of bribery payments should be checked. This particularly affects men who have traveled abroad on the basis of a “suspicious” screening decision.
David Arahamia, faction leader of Zelenskyj’s “Sluha narodu” party (in English “servant of the people”) is more specific. So he put the extradition of deserters who are abroad in the room. Should it really come to that, it could affect thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Germany alone. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 163,287 able-bodied Ukrainians have entered the country in the first twelve months since the war began.
Thousands of conscripts left Ukraine illegally
At the end of February 2022, shortly after the start of the Ukraine War, the government in Kiev imposed martial law. Thus, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed out of the Ukraine leave the country and can be drafted into the army at any time. There are only a few exceptions: people with disabilities, students, fathers of three or more children or single fathers are allowed to leave the country.
According to information from Mirror Ukrainian border police arrest an average of 20 men a day accused of attempting to leave the country illegally. Since the beginning of the war that had been 20,000 men. 6,200 of them are said to have presented forged documents at checkpoints. 14,000 are said to have tried to escape far from border crossings. A market for false papers and smugglers is said to have developed very quickly. Smugglers are to receive between 3,000 and 15,000 US dollars, Zelenskyj said in his speech. Even high-ranking officials in the Ukrainian military apparatus should allow themselves to be bribed.
To take action against this corruption, the President has everything in August Regional heads of recruitment offices in Ukraine dismissed. In a video message, he accused them of treason. This was preceded by several cases of bribery. The first to be arrested was the military chief of the Odessa region. He is said to have helped men avoid conscription for money. He apparently bought real estate in Spain worth millions, according to the investigators.
Too authoritarian in war? Criticism of Zelenskyj’s decisions
However, Zelenskyy’s decision to fire all regional heads of the recruitment offices has also drawn criticism. Time and again, Zelenskyy’s political decisions during the war were judged to be authoritarian or strategically wrong. That too Ban of eleven Ukrainian political parties at the beginning of the war.
Selenskyj is not only investigating officers and officials. The public prosecutor’s office is loud Mirror apparently also against doctors who decide on the fitness for military service of men.
Many who were able to flee successfully are in Germany, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia. 15 people are said to have died trying to escape. How is unclear. Romanian border guards say they have arrested 7,400 illegal Ukrainians since the beginning of the war.
Loud Mirror but they would be taken to the immigration office, where they are said to have made an application for temporary protection. For humanitarian reasons, all Ukrainian refugees are currently allowed to stay in the EU. However, there is no special asylum for deserters. However, there is currently no pressure from Ukraine to extradite.
The fact that men of military age can leave the country with the necessary money while poorer people stay in Ukraine has long been criticized. Others accuse the deserters of abandoning their homeland in the fight against the Russian invasion.
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