The bag of tricks with which many Ukrainians leave their country is very deep. The only thing that is often less than that is the wallet used to pay for the services of the smuggling mafia. Since single men are allowed to leave the country even if they are of military age, some also produce death certificates for their wives. Others put themselves in the role of mother and try to escape across the border in women’s clothes.
Every day, Ukrainian border guards arrest an average of 20 people who try to leave the country illegally, writes Der Spiegel. Zelensky quoted border police as saying that since the beginning of the Russian invasion war, authorities have stopped more than 20,000 people from crossing illegally. However, it is quite easy to see that the number of unreported cases is quite high. 14,000 Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 54 have managed to flee to Austria – that would amount to 28 battalions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, eXXpress has already reported.
Apart from smugglers, corrupt officials of Ukraine’s recruitment centers also collected a lot of money. Volodymyr Zelensky has already replaced the heads of these authorities with former front-line soldiers.
In early August, handcuffs were also imposed on the head of a recruitment center in a Kiev district and a department head in the capital’s military administration. Allegations: “A large-scale corruption scheme to smuggle civilians of military age abroad”. They issued false certificates to young men stating that they were unfit for military service. Prize: $10,000.
