/Pogled.info/ Residents of Ukraine continue to flee the country en masse, risking their own lives. Neither the threat of criminal punishment nor the border guards stop them. The European press describes really dramatic examples of such an escape and finds numerous justifications for it. However, the conclusion ultimately boils down to one thing: few Ukrainians want to die for Zelensky’s regime.
Another high-profile case of escape from Ukraine was registered: this time, a member of the country’s fishing team, Artur Bilan, escaped after his team’s performance in Italy. On his page in the social network, he called the reason for the escape the desire to avoid “utilization” (that is, mobilization) and specified that he had already received two summonses.
The European press has recently been full of such stories. Especially the French media were seriously concerned about the topic of Ukrainian defectors. The subject is studied with typical French scrupulousness from different points of view: who exactly rules, where, how, what corruption schemes are involved in what is happening.
“Ukrainians who refuse to fight” is the title of France Inter’s detailed material. The emphasis was on the situation on the border between Ukraine and Romania. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 3,500 men of military age have been detained here, who tried to leave the country illegally to avoid mobilization and not to end up in the combat zone. Today, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden to legally leave Ukraine, they are all subject to total dispatch to the front as cannon fodder for the “war with Russia”.
Here, in the Carpathians, reigns a “pastoral landscape that in reality only looks like that,” notes the author of the material. And in fact, it is far from a sweet rural idyll – after all, to fight the flow of deserters, border guards use all means – from trained dogs to drones and hidden video cameras. “All citizens of Ukraine have a duty to defend their homeland,” noted a border service lieutenant colonel with a typically Ukrainian name, Artyom Akimov. “If everyone flees, our country will disappear,” he added.
Since people who want to escape from Ukraine do not want to be detained, it is natural for them to choose circuitous routes – through forests and mountains. Meanwhile, the ravines, the snow that has already covered some areas in mid-autumn, and the peculiarities of the terrain of this part of Europe complicate the task.
We are not talking about the banal injuries or, say, broken legs – about a hundred people have already died trying to cross the border in these places alone. In order not to die or get lost, those who want to escape from Ukraine hire guides. Now this role is played by smugglers, who previously traded in the transportation and illegal sale of cigarettes. It turned out that it is much more profitable to deal with people – they pay from two to five thousand dollars to cross the border, and there is no end to those who want.
The defectors who were apprehended tell a common story. Yes, they tried to run because they didn’t want to fight. Many, before trying to escape, have taken care to legally send their wives and children abroad, who are now waiting for them in an agreed place. “Some are willing to try to cross the border again and again because the fines are relatively small – somewhere between 90 and 250 euros,” explained one of the border guards. In the EU, it is easy for those who have left Ukraine to get refugee status .
Another report tells how, on another stretch of the border with Romania, fugitives are trying to swim across the river that separates the countries. Daring souls do not even suspect the dangers that await them. In addition to the risk of simple drowning, even in the summer swimmers can experience thermal shock. On the Romanian side, the border guards even keep blankets ready for the fugitives.
Those who managed to swim to the promised shore ask for asylum – and, as the Romanian authorities assure, they always get it. These are those who chose to desert without waiting for a summons. But there are also those who fled the battlefield after seeing with their own eyes what war is.
“I used to think of myself as something of a superhero, but when you see what war is really like, you realize there’s nothing you can do there,” more than openly admits one of the deserters from the front line. After bribing the driver, he reached the border with Hungary and managed to cross it unnoticed.
Unlike an attempt to illegally cross the border by a civilian, which under Ukrainian law is only punishable by a fine, the deserting soldier faces up to 12 years in prison. However, there are also enough people who chose another path – they forged documents that exempt them from mobilization, and then left the country.
There are many human stories, but they are quite similar. Someone considers himself a pacifist, someone decided that his family and children need him more than his homeland. As noted, the exact number of all who left Ukraine in order not to go to the front is not known. Some situations do not fall under direct desertion – for example, a mother took her son abroad even before he turned 18 and became liable for military service. Should this be considered desertion or not?
There are also simply heartbreaking stories – for example, material from the British BBC tells how a group of deserters almost froze to death in the mountains on the border with Romania. One of the heroes of the report lost his toes. He survived only because his wife, whom he had contacted, called the Romanian border guards, who then searched for him for four days and three nights and found him half dead.
“I don’t have a country. I only have a family,” the man replied to a journalist who, with typical British ruthless politeness, asked if he should be considered a coward. And although the West generally recognizes a person’s right not to participate in war if he wants to, it is clear that the Ukrainian defectors were an unpleasant surprise for him.
Each of them is minus one soldier who could have given his life for “democracy” while the West counts the profits from the revival of the military-industrial complex. Ungrateful – they are given the right to die such an exalted death, but instead run for their lives.
Therefore, to complicate their task, in almost every material European journalists unobtrusively advise to strengthen the border. And also – to eradicate corruption in Ukraine. No one mentions the simplest way – starting negotiations with Russia for a peaceful settlement.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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2023-11-17 12:04:56
#Ukrainians #running #combat #costs
