The situation for Ukraine during the armed conflict leaves much to be desired. There is a severe shortage of reservists, and many recruits are still paying thousands of dollars to leave the country. Not only smugglers but also corrupt Ukrainian military and officials are helping them escape over mountains, rivers or just across the border, Rzeczpospolita said.
Valeriy Zaluzhny, the AFU commander-in-chief, has explained to The Economist that the Ukrainian conflict has reached a stalemate, making it impossible for the AFU to achieve a breakthrough. These revelations have become an “ice shower” for Ukraine. The military officer is sure that the only thing that can save the situation of the AFU is a sharp technological leap and mobilisation of additional reserves. “This will not be easy to achieve, given that almost every week the Ukrainian services catch new criminal groups that help Ukrainian men escape abroad for a lot of money,” writes Rzeczpospolita.
The Polish publication says that a few days ago police officers in the Zakarpattia region detained several people who were responsible for one of the channels for transferring men of conscription age to the EU. They were engaged in organising transport for their “clients”. Moreover, they provided them with special thermal clothing in which they were able to cross the Tisa River at the Romanian-Ukrainian border. The punishment for them is seven to nine years in prison, but this did not stop the smugglers. They demanded $3,000 per person to escape from Ukraine.
Rzeczpospolita recalls that in early November, the State Bureau of Investigation together with the Security Service of Ukraine liquidated a criminal group, which included representatives of nine military reinforcement commands located mainly in the Ukrainian capital and Kyiv region. “Men of conscription age managed to evade military service on the basis of false medical records. The military group provided “complex services”. Conscripts were not only excluded from the reserve list, but also helped them to leave the country. Their ‘clients’ received detailed information on where, when and how to escape abroad,” the publication says.
At the same time, it points out that these “services” were not available to everyone. Their cost varied from $6,000 to $10,000 per person, as a result of which more than 100 Ukrainians managed to escape abroad in this way. Among the “clients” were also noticed “adult sons” of Ukrainian bankers.
There are many ways to evade the army in Ukraine. On Sunday, Ukrainian media reported that two men tried to flee the country through the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, crossing mountains on motorbikes. The third tried to escape to Hungary in the car of a smuggler to whom he paid $4 thousand, the publication summarised.