Ukrainian draft dodgers face perilous escapes and corruption crackdown

“These are classified information,” says Ihor Klymenko, head of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, cutting off discussions about the number of conscripts who have fled the country since the war started. For an army desperately in need of recruits, this is a problem, while for corrupt officials, it’s an opportunity to make money.

In the forests, there are camera traps and vehicles with electro-optical heads. In the air, drones, airplanes, and helicopters monitor the Tisza. The river, in a 39-mile section, serves as the border between Ukraine and Romania. The main goal is to hinder illegal border crossings.

Conscripts wanting to avoid being drafted into the army choose this area, even though it’s not the safest. They flee on pontoons, mattresses, and even by swimming. Some drown—border guards from both countries have already retrieved over 30 bodies.

Others try to cross into Hungary or Moldova, but the green border is dangerous there as well. On the bank of the Turunchuk—a river marking the border with Moldova—border guards found a resident of Odessa in a state of severe hypothermia in March. In the same month, the border guards saved the lives of three young men from Zhytomyr Oblast, who got lost in the Mukachevo area while trying to get to Hungary. They were soaked, frozen, and completely unprepared for crossing the mountains.

A safer option is to try to sneak through a border crossing. However, the risk of being caught is higher. In a truck headed to Hungary, which was supposed to transport grain on the trailer, 41 escapees were discovered.

It is impossible to state precisely how many Ukrainians have illegally left the country since the beginning of the war. The only certain number seems to be 22,000, arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally or possessing false documents. The scale is unknown, as Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs considers this data classified. In Romania alone, the official number given by the Border Guard is 11,000 people.

At the end of last year, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that with the approaching Russian counteroffensive, the army asked him to mobilize 450,000 to 500,000 conscripts. Meanwhile, the immediate need was for 150,000 new soldiers.

In mid-May, new mobilization regulations started to apply in Ukraine. The law replaced universal conscription with a five-month training period for all men capable of military service, especially affecting those aged 18-25. Until the age of 25, they will not be mobilized into frontline units but will undergo periodic training.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also informed that conscripts who are abroad should return and report to the territorial recruitment center for updating their military registration data.

It was announced that if someone does not register, they may later face problems obtaining documents or be deprived of consular services, which can significantly complicate their stay abroad. It may also be difficult to find a job upon returning to Ukraine or continuing their education.

“If these people think that someone far away on the front line is fighting and giving their lives for this country, while someone will sit abroad yet receive services from the state, it doesn’t work that way,” wrote on the platform “X” the head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba.

Ukraine has been fighting those who facilitate conscripts dodging frontline service. After illegal exits from the country, the second most common method of escaping the army is the falsification of medical documentation and getting added to the list of professions crucial for defense. This lucrative business is thriving.

The prelude to the current intensified anti-corruption campaign was still in 2023. At that time, officers from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine mainly checked logistics and Territorial Recruitment Centers. As a result of the inspections, all regional commissioners in Ukraine were dismissed from their positions on corruption charges.

The "hard" fight began at the start of 2024. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) revealed that since April 2022, a judge from the District Court in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi had been enabling conscripts to leave the country based on fictitious certificates. For $3,500, the judge issued a document stating that they had children living abroad and that the conscript was their sole provider. A thousand such certificates were issued.

Now the officers have moved further. The services launched a hotline to report cases of avoiding military service. This led to the capture of the head of a village in Ternopil Oblast who falsified letters justifying the need to direct conscripts to transport humanitarian goods allegedly for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Such a service cost $12,000.

A real gang was busted in Kyiv. The director of one hospital, the head of the endocrinology department, a nurse from that hospital, and a surgeon from the state Heart Institute of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine were arrested. The prosecution found that they acted jointly and by mutual agreement, so they were also charged with operating as an organized criminal group. They all face up to 15 years in prison. More than 20 escapees used their services, paying between $3,000 and $5,000 for certificates of poor health.

Although the mobilization law has been in effect for barely two months, Ukraine can already form 10 new brigades [brigades consist of 3,500-4,000 soldiers - ed.]. Is this the case? It’s hard to say definitively—new information has just emerged that prisoners convicted of minor crimes are already serving in the army. The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reported that over 3,000 out of the 27,000 prisoners eligible for the "freedom for fight" program have taken advantage of it. Recruiting prisoners may indicate that the conscription did not go as planned by Kyiv.