According to their own statements, Ukrainian border guards have prevented more than 13,000 people from leaving the country since the Russian invasion last year. “In total, more than 9,100 people have been arrested at the green border since February 24,” authority spokesman Andriy Demchenko said in Kyiv today. Most of them were picked up in border sections with Romania and Moldova.
Another nearly 3,900 people were prevented from crossing official borders with false documents, among other things. Most would have wanted to continue towards Hungary or Poland.
ban on conscripts
As part of the general mobilization at the beginning of the war, a ban on leaving the country for Ukrainian conscripts between the ages of 18 and 60 was imposed, with some exceptions. According to reports from border guards, men, some in women’s clothing, tried to leave the country with purchased documents about non-existent children or fictitious marriages.
Several men froze to death in the Carpathian Mountains and at least a dozen drowned in border rivers, especially on the Romanian border. It is not known how many Ukrainians managed to escape military service.