According to the British publication BBC, almost 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war to avoid conscription. The State Border Service of Ukraine does not have such statistics, but notes that in 2023 there are fewer attempts to violate the state border.
Source: Air ForceSpeaker of the State Border Guard Service Andrey Demchenko in a commentary to Ukrayinska Pravda
Details: The publication notes that it established this number by requesting data on illegal border crossings in Romania, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, neighboring Ukraine.
According to this information, 19,740 men illegally crossed the border of these countries between February 2022 and August 31, 2023.
Another 21,113 men tried to escape, but were detained by the Ukrainian authorities, the Air Force notes (according to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, fewer – 16,700 people during martial law, see comment below – ed.).
The majority – 14,313 – attempted to cross the border on foot or by swimming, while the remaining 6,800 relied on fraudulently obtained official documents that included false exemptions such as fabricated illnesses.
The presidential representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Fyodor Venislavsky, admitted to the BBC that the problem is serious.
“The authorities understand that this phenomenon is not isolated and that it is widespread. Unfortunately, I would like to emphasize that corruption is very persistent,” he said, adding that Ukraine is doing “everything possible to reduce the number of cases of corruption to a minimum.” .
The number of men who left or attempted to leave has no bearing on the war effort, Zelensky’s spokesman said.
“I am convinced that the resilience and readiness of Ukrainians to defend their independence, sovereignty and freedom is 95-99%,” Venislavsky said in a commentary to the BBC.
When asked to comment on the figures presented in the BBC material, the speaker of the State Border Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, noted that he does not have statistics from neighboring countries, and under what circumstances, violations of border or migration legislation, certain persons could be detained.
At the same time, the colonel assured that the Ukrainian side is taking maximum measures to prevent illegal border crossings, and in addition, to reliably protect the state border, it is carrying out joint activities with border guards of neighboring countries, such as joint patrols, exchange of information about attempted violations, etc.
According to the State Border Guard Service, Since the beginning of martial law, Ukrainian border guards have detained 16,700 male citizenswho tried to cross the green section of the border illegally, or cross the border in another illegal way (hiding in the design features of vehicles or trying to avoid border control). More than 7 thousand more people were exposed while trying to illegally cross through checkpoints, in particular using fake documents.
At the same time, Demchenko noted that compared to 2022, there were fewer attempts to violate the state border.
In addition, over 10 months of 2023, at checkpoints, border guards refused to leave almost 43 thousand citizens of Ukraine, the majority of whom were men who did not fall under the conditions for leaving the country under martial law.
This is 17% more than in the same period last year.
According to the speaker of the State Border Guard Service, most often border guards record attempts to illegally cross the green section of the border with Romania and Moldova, while the largest number of counterfeits are documented on the border with Poland.
During martial law, almost 300 criminal groups that specialized in illegally transporting persons across the border were exposed.
Citizens also tried more than 800 times to bribe inspectors of the State Border Guard Service so that they would make a decision to allow them to cross the border. The total amount of bribes offered is UAH 8 million. The bribers were handed over to the relevant law enforcement agencies.
2023-11-17 10:16:36
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