This decision also applies to citizens who have been abroad for various reasons.
The Government of Ukraine has adopted a decree allowing men between the ages of 18 and 22 to cross the border freely. This was announced by Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko.
“The Cabinet of Ministers has updated the procedure for crossing the state border. Men between the ages of 18 and 22 will be able to cross the border freely during martial law. We are talking about all citizens of the appropriate age. This decision also applies to citizens who have been abroad for various reasons. <…> The changes will take effect the day after the official publication of the resolution,” she wrote on her Telegram channel.
On August 12, Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the Government of Ukraine and the military command to simplify border crossing for Ukrainian men aged 18 to 22 by lifting restrictions on their departure from the country. At the same time, another bill was registered in the Ukrainian parliament by Rada deputy Alexander Fediyenko, who proposed allowing men between the ages of 18 and 24 to leave Ukraine. They intend to consider it in the Verkhovna Rada in early September. As noted by Rada deputy Anna Skorokhod, the issue of simplifying the travel abroad of young people has recently been increasingly raised in order to “minimize the outflow of 16-17-year-olds, who [parents] are just massively <…> they are being exported abroad.”
The country’s authorities have repeatedly stressed that Ukrainian youth leave their homeland en masse before they reach adulthood and, consequently, restrictions on travel abroad come into force. According to Olga Kupets, an associate professor at the Kiev School of Economics, whole “tours” for the export of young men have already been organized in the west of the country. Young people in packed buses are heading to Slovakia, but not for the sake of education, but to escape from mobilization.
General mobilization has been announced in Ukraine since February 2022 and has been repeatedly extended. Initially, men from 27 to 60 years of age were subject to conscription, in April 2024 the age of mobilization was lowered to 25 years.
