Draft dodgers, bribes and demobilization edit
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, around 650,000 military-aged men have fled the country through bribes, fake medical records or illegal crossings.
[51] The crossings take place in the
Carpathian mountains, on the border with Romania. According to Ukrainian authorities around 20,000 people were caught trying to cross the border illegally since February 2022 and another 20,000 successful crossings according to a BBC Eye Investigation.
[52]
In the first months of the war, there were many volunteers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including volunteers from around the world.
[53] The expectations were high, a quick end to the war, with the restoration of Ukrainian 1991 borders. As the conflict dragged on, the population began to grow weary and the losses became visible. Many who went to fight from abroad, quickly realized the WW1-esque nature of the conflict and the number of foreign nationals decreased sharply.
[54][55]
Of those that stayed in Ukraine and didn't volunteer, there was a tendency to pay bribes to the conscription officers, usually $5,000 to $10,000, to avoid being mobilized.
[56] There is an extensive bribe culture in Ukraine.
[57] During the second year of the invasion, and especially after the
2023 Ukrainian Counteroffensive, there was a lack of new recruits.
[58]

Conscription officers at a road block in Kyiv.
To counteract this, Ukrainian government began harsher methods of mobilization, such as road blocks, business raids, going house to house and pulling people from the streets. In the latter half of 2023, many videos surfaced online showing Ukrainian men violently dragged into vans and driven to the military recruiting center (
ТЦК [
uk]).
[58][59][60]
It was reported by eyewitnesses Ukraine had a corrupt medical commission. Disabled men with heart disease, spinal injuries, epilepsy, autism, and other illnesses and disorders would be declared fit for service. And those with money would use bribes for a medical exemption. There are a growing number of legal battles in Ukraine related to cases of lawlessness in the recruitment of new conscripts.
[60][61][62]
Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen are reported to be one of the oldest in the world, with an average age of 43 in November 2023, 10 years older than in March 2022.
[63] Desertion, flight from the front lines and insubordination in Ukrainian Armed Forces has seen a steady growth in 2022 and 2023.
[64][65]
The lack of resources for mobilization also affects rotation, with many conscripts having no rotation since the start of the war in 2022. There have been protests around Ukraine, primarily wives and relatives of the mobilized soldiers demanding demobilization and to see their loved ones again.
[66][67]
On 23 April 2024, the Ukrainian foreign ministry announced that it would suspend consular services to overseas Ukrainian men who were eligible for military service, with the exception of those returning to Ukraine.
[68]
On 24 April 2024, the Ukrainian government issued a decree banning the delivery of identification documents and passports to Ukrainian men of military age abroad.
[69]
As of 26 April 2024, the Polish government has offered, and the Lithuania governments is considering, repatriating Ukrainian men living in their countries to Ukraine. So that they can be drafted into the Ukrainian military. It is a “rough estimate” that some 300-400,000 men alone are living in Poland.
[70]
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