No regrets, no regrets. A group of young Ukrainians are feeling extremely radiant after having risked their lives to flee the war that is ravaging their country, now beyond the reach of the Ukrainian authorities, in Romanian territory. Their happy faces radiate relief. First, because they have managed to escape possible conscription – the minimum age for conscription for soldiers was lowered from 27 to 25 this spring; second, because they have evaded the Ukrainian border police control, which has been strengthened; and, finally, they have overcome the severe physical tests of crossing the mountainous region of Maramureș and the Tisza River, bordering Romania.
“We consciously accept the risk of death that comes with fleeing, as the authorities warn us, but it is not as great as they make it out to be, they only do it to intimidate,” says Evgeni, a 20-year-old who prefers to withhold his last name. He is always elated after achieving his goal of crossing the border near the Sighetu Marmației pass in northern Romania on his second attempt. A month earlier, he had ventured into the mountains, but a stomach ailment prevented him from continuing. “Without food, I could not bear the load I was carrying and I gave myself up to the Ukrainian guards, who were glad they did not have to catch anyone.” They let him go with only a fine. If he had been five years older, they would have sent him to war.
Evgeni’s journey on foot took nine days from Oleksandriia, a town in central Ukraine, to the Romanian border crossing. He knows that Sighetu Marmației is one of the preferred crossings because it has an emigration office that quickly issues subsidiary protection status, which, like other Ukrainian refugees welcomed in the European Union, includes a residence and work permit. He made the journey with his childhood friends, Daniel and Danilo. Both openly express their enthusiasm for leaving their country, while constantly talking to their parents on the phone. “They understand that it was worth risking their lives, even though we kept them in suspense for days, not knowing if we would be safe,” Daniel says. In the coming days, they plan to leave Romania. Egveni, who left his parents in Ukraine, will join his brother and uncles in Poland, while Daniel and Danilo will travel to Estonia and Belgium, where they also have relatives.
Faced with a shortage of weapons and men, and at a time when Russia is taking the initiative and increasing attacks on the front – despite the Ukrainian incursion into the Russian Kursk region – Kiev adopted measures this year to facilitate recruitment and punish those who do not want to join. Recruitment squads sometimes roam some streets hunting for those who do not want to register electronically, which has prompted thousands of Ukrainians to leave for neighbouring countries. According to the report, data collected by The Wall Street JournalMore than 44,000 men have fled to Romania, Moldova and Slovakia since the beginning of the war. This figure does not include Poland or Hungary, or those who left the country with papers obtained through bribery. While the first two countries are trying to get through the mountains, attempts at accessing the borders with the rest are predominantly made with false documents.
The number of irregular arrivals in Romania has doubled since January 2024 compared to previous years, according to the Romanian border police. Since January, more than 7,000 Ukrainians have entered illegally, compared to 3,800 in 2023 and 4,500 in 2022, while the actual number of those caught by the Ukrainian police is unknown, although it is estimated to be at least 100. In total, more than 15,000 have fled to that neighbouring country alone. Among them, 25 deaths from hypothermia were recorded, 15 in the Tisza river and another 10 in the rocky mountains. In addition to risking their lives, the defectors face prison sentences if Ukrainian guards catch them trying. Illegal departure from the country by men aged 18 to 60 carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison under martial law.
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Crossing the river in flip-flops
The three friends walked through the thick forests at night with their mobile phones switched off so that they would not detect any signals. “We hid from the forest guards, crossed prominent ridges and rivers and slept in sleeping bags on rocky areas, and we threw away most of the equipment we were carrying because we didn’t use it or it was too heavy,” says Evgeni, while showing a filter that is used to purify the water they took from the streams, a 30-gram towel and some packets of cream of mushroom paste and lamb soup. They crossed the river in half an hour in flip-flops and with water up to their waists. “We went straight to the border police and told them how we had arrived,” he says. The next day, the General Immigration Inspectorate, which has opened an office at the same border point, granted them temporary protection status. Evgeni justifies his escape by saying that living conditions in Ukraine have deteriorated significantly and he believes that the situation will only get worse in the next two years. The young man, who had to chase away lynxes and deer during the journey, stresses that “the authorities themselves are preparing the population for the worst.”
In Sighetu Marmației, the young people met Nazer, another 24-year-old Ukrainian who also entered Romania illegally after having planned to do so since the beginning of the summer. With a wide-open smile, he shows his joy at having escaped. “When I started working, several military recruiters approached me and asked me questions; I sensed that they were waiting to take me to war,” says this young man from Lviv, who opted to go to Romania instead of Poland because he was a young man with a lot of experience. The Polish government, together with the Lithuanian government, has statedhis willingness to help kyiv to return men of fighting age to their country.
“I ran with a friend through the bushes, which were difficult to avoid because they were thick, then I crossed the river, the water up to my chest, and after a journey that seemed to never end, I reached the other side of the border,” Nazer says. Pessimism dominates his thoughts at the moment: “Many Ukrainians will die until the United States gives us permission to use their weapons in Russia on targets such as airports or warehouses with weapons; soldiers are not eternal,” the fugitive says. Like Evgeni, Nazer will soon board a train full of fellow citizens who are skeptical of telling their stories to the West, in the hope of being able to build a “happy life,” which his country cannot offer at the moment, he emphasizes.
Romanian border police, supported by dozens of guards from the European border agency Frontex, are keeping a close watch on some 430 kilometres of border with Ukraine. Fire and rescue services are also involved, as is the General Aviation Inspectorate, which provides a helicopter. So far, they have intervened 150 times and saved the lives of 100 Ukrainians.
“We have cameras hidden among trees and vehicles equipped with thermovision technologies that detect human heat, as well as drones, to detect them,” explains Iulia Stan, territorial head of the Sighetu Marmației border police, which controls 360 kilometres of border with Ukraine. She admits that they were forced to carry out a medical check because Ukrainians refused to be treated in a hospital: “They arrive with high levels of adrenaline that make them claim that they do not need assistance to avoid being recognised, but they often have deep cuts and even fractures, as well as fatigue and hypothermia, so we call an ambulance.”
“Many say they would rather die in the mountains than in combat,” says Dan Benga, head of the Maramureș Regional Rescue Service, adding that “these are men who do not know the problems they will face in their escape.” Along the 120 kilometres of mountainous area shared by the two countries, the deserters encounter peaks of up to 2,000 metres in altitude, waterfalls, cascades and ravines of up to 200 metres. “On average, it takes us 14 to 16 hours to save a person,” adds Benga, who recalls a rescue of six people on Christmas Eve two years ago that lasted 132 hours. “We have put up signs to avoid dangerous areas, but still some ignore the warnings; they think they might not be caught if they follow other routes,” he says. “Almost everyone is exhausted, dehydrated, hungry and cold,” says the rescuer, who predicts an increase in calls for help with the arrival of rain and fog.
“Ukraine has stepped up its control missions, while we have strengthened our posts,” says Adi Opa, head of the border police in Sighetu Marmației, as he surveys the area from a wooden bridge linking the two countries. “Sometimes we get a warning that a person is crossing the river, and we immediately rush to help them,” he says. Every day, a Ukrainian citizen comes to the information booths located five metres from passport control to find out how to get there. “Mostly people from war zones like Kharkiv come to us to ask for information, but we tell them that it is difficult to provide them with accommodation,” says Stefana Dunca, a representative of the National Council for Refugees, from the office that the organisation maintains at the border point.
At the border crossing, meanwhile, Ukrainians within the age range that is prohibited from leaving their country are seen legally crossing the border. This is the case of Roman, who has travelled with his family to Slatina from Ternopil to spend a few days and who is also taking the opportunity to visit the Romanian side. When asked why they let him cross, the 38-year-old Ukrainian shows his left hand without four fingers, a birth defect, he says, that prevents him from being recruited. He admits that he lives in fear in his city, where drones destroyed an oil depot a few days ago. “I am not leaving because I have all my family there, but about twenty friends have already left.”
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