“They started sending extradition notices to the Ukrainians. » Since the beginning of September, reports published on social networks indicate that Ukrainian refugees of military age will soon be sent back to Ukraine, where they will be handed over to justice. Under martial law in force in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, men aged 18 to 60 can be mobilized and have no right to leave the territory. However, these publications, widely circulated in pro-Russian circles, are false.
A photo of a letter has been circulating on social networks for several days. A Ukrainian living in Ireland was reportedly informed by Irish authorities of an extradition request from his country for “failure to comply with the legal obligation to perform military service”. On Tuesday, September 12, the Irish Ministry of Justice had to deny that it had sent extradition notices to Ukrainian refugees.
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The fake letter is quite convincing and cites the 1957 European Extradition Convention, which applies to the 46 Council of Europe states (including Ukraine and Ireland), to justify the extradition process. Except that Article 4 of the Convention provides that “extradition for military offenses other than common law offenses shall be excluded.” In other words, Ukraine cannot request the extradition of a man simply because he fled his military obligations.
A few days earlier, a video presented as the testimony of a Ukrainian against whom an extradition request was filed was also widely shared on pro-Russian networks (including the Telegram channel of Russian regime propagandist Vladimir Soloviev, which has 1.3 million subscribers). A young man explains in Russian that he has received a document informing him that Ukraine has requested his extradition to the European country where he supposedly entered legally. The document he quickly presents on the screen is illegible; and what it contains cannot be verified. The only visible reference is the logo of the General Directorate of the Spanish Police. When contacted, neither the Spanish Ministry of Justice nor the Ukrainian Embassy in Spain responded to our questions.
In this sense, in recent months several pro-Russian publications have pointed out that Poland handed over to Kiev Ukrainian refugees who hoped to avoid mobilization. This was actually diverted information from an article in the Polish daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita, according to which Warsaw had extradited Ukrainians involved in the illegal migrant trade.
Ukraine lacks soldiers
These widespread rumors reflect a very real problem in Ukraine: the lack of soldiers in the army, which the authorities complain about. At the start of the Russian invasion it benefited from an influx of volunteers willing to fight, but nineteen months into the conflict, losses forced it to rely more heavily on conscription.
Since August, several Ukrainian officials have expressed their desire to repatriate Ukrainians who have shirked their military obligations. According to the spokesman for the border guard, quoted by Agence France-Presse in early September, 13,600 people who wanted to secretly leave the country have been arrested since the start of the war, and 6,100 others were taken away. fake documents. However, the country does not provide overall statistics on potentially mobilized people who have fled the country.
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In August, Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities announced the arrest of an army official in Kiev accused of helping men evade conscription. For $10,000 (9,100 euros), men who wanted to avoid military service received “fictitious documents certifying their unsuitability for military service.”
However, using false documents is a criminal offense, not a military offense, which could lead to an extradition request from Ukraine. However, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, admitted on September 15 that “European countries are unlikely to accept extraditions,” acknowledging that it is a complex and “impossible” procedure that is used on a mass scale can be. Ukraine would first have to collect evidence and initiate a trial before filing an extradition request for each of the defendants. “Today I do not think it is possible to solve the problem of the return of young men who, for one reason or another, have emigrated abroad on the basis of forged certificates,” he admitted, at the same time assuring that justice will be meted out to the fraudsters , if they decide to return to Ukraine “when the war ends.”
No extradition from France to Ukraine
“Extradition is a request from one government to another government, but the decision whether or not to extradite a person rests solely with the state receiving the request. He has the freedom to decide whether the facts justify extradition and can question the assessment of the facts by the state making the request,” explains Didier Rebut, director of the Paris Institute of Criminology and Criminal Law. The use of a false document to avoid military service could then be viewed as an extension of a military offense and call into question the admissibility of such an extradition request.
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Since the start of the Russian invasion, “there has been no handover from France to Ukraine,” confirms the French Ministry of Justice, although “bilateral cooperation between France and Ukraine continues despite the conflict, both in investigative matters and in extradition.” Affairs”. In March, Ukraine’s extradition request for billionaire Kostiantyn Jevaho was rejected by the French judiciary on the grounds that the fundamental freedoms that should benefit the suspect could not be adequately guaranteed in a country at war.
The temporary protection granted to the European Union (EU) to Ukrainians fleeing war in their country makes no distinction between gender or conscription status, the European Commission confirms to Le Monde. It may therefore apply to men of fighting age in their country. Since March 2022, Ukrainians fleeing the war started by Russia have benefited from a status that allows them to stay, work and receive aid in the European Union. Previously, Ukrainian citizens could only stay in the EU for ninety days without a visa. The European Commission proposed on Tuesday September 19 to extend the protection of Ukrainian refugees for another year, until March 2025. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, 5.8 million of them enjoy this protection in the EU.
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