In West Ukraine, Smugglers Switch To Guiding Draft Dodgers

AFP/APP

Velyky Bychkiv: Set among mountains and woods, with a dog playing on its pebbled shore, the river marking Ukraine’s border with Romania looks tranquil. But 39 men have drowned here fleeing the draft.

Facing a desperate shortage of men to fight on the eastern front, where the Ukrainian army is being driven back by advancing Russians, Kyiv in May passed a law on mobilization to replenish its ranks.

Most Ukrainian men of fighting age are barred from leaving the country, and to avoid mobilization, several thousand have risked their lives by trying to swim across the Tysa River in the country’s west to reach Romania.

“Every 24 hours, we see one of them trying to cross,” says border guard Oleg Seleznyov, stroking one of the dogs used by his canine service brigade to patrol the river at the border village of Velyky Bychkiv. This 32-year-old knows the river like the back of his hand and is well aware of how formidable its rapids are, especially at night.

“We’ve rescued lots of people who thought it would be easy to get across,” he says. The Tysa is a major river that flows from Ukraine through Hungary to Serbia.

The most popular place for draft dodgers to attempt to swim across is a 60-kilometre (37-mile) stretch where the river flows close to a road and villages, including Veliky Bychkiv, a route also used by smugglers of contraband.

To spot people attempting to cross the river in the wild, mountainous region of Transcarpathia, border guards have watchtowers and sentries permanently posted on banks and can deploy surveillance drones with thermal cameras at night. They also set up roadblocks at frequently changing locations in the region to check men’s military papers, mobilize those whose papers are incorrect, and spot draft dodgers.

Not many have made it across the Tysa, Ukrainian border guards insist, saying at least 39 have lost their lives in the attempt. Yet police at the Romanian frontier have said they have recorded almost 15,000 illegal crossings since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.