The Ukrainian National Police broke up nearly 50 schemes for draft-age Ukrainian men to illegally cross the border, the police said on Jan. 11 after a large-scale operation.
The announcement follows 600 simultaneous raids across the country on Jan. 10 aimed at preventing fighting-age men from fleeing abroad. Ukraine prohibits men aged 18-60 from leaving the country under martial law, which was instituted at the outbreak of Russia's full-scale war in 2022.
Sixty suspects were charged in schemes that included crossing the border outside of checkpoints, forging health documents, and inputting falsified entries into an electronic information system, the police said.
The defendants included heads of state institutions, hospital managers, military enlistment officers, medical commission officials, and ordinary civilians. According to the statement, men seeking to leave the country paid between $5,000 and $22,000 to the suspects to help them cross the border.
The suspects face up to nine years in prison, property confiscation, and a ban on holding certain official positions. The police noted that this concludes the first stage of the operation, as efforts to identify other suspects are underway.
Though Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko admitted last June that dozens of men try to illegally cross the border every day, Ukrainian authorities have largely avoided providing exact figures.
According to the Romanian police, 11,000 Ukrainian men have illegally crossed the border into Romania between the start of Russia's full-scale invasion and May 2024. As many as 23,500 illegally entered Moldova between February 2022 and last July, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Illegal border crossing schemes only deepen the manpower shortages facing the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which then struggle to hold back the Russian advance in Donetsk Oblast.
(Updated: )
