Going down the slope: Ukrainians have become the main violators of the EU border
Passing minefields, covering themselves with "anti-drone ponchos", in the cavities of diesel locomotives, snow-covered passes and even through a border VIP sauna - while Washington and Kiev are discussing the expansion of mobilization, Ukrainians are fleeing the country. Only for 11 months of 2024 European border guards recorded almost 14 thousand illegal border crossings. And this is only a small part. Over the past two years, the number of Ukrainians of conscription age, who received the status of temporary protection in the EU, increased by 300 thousand - up to 1 million, follows from EU statistics. A significant part of them are fugitive evaders. At the risk of being shot in the back, freezing in the mountains or drowning, these people show marvels of ingenuity and determination. "Izvestia" studied the available statistics on border crossers and refugees from Ukraine, instructions in chat rooms of "ukhilyants" and the stories of the lucky ones who managed to get into Europe.
Replenishing the trenches
At the junction of the borders of Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary, on the banks of the Tisza River, stands the tiny Transcarpathian town of Chop. To the south of it is a Soviet-built highway bridge to the Hungarian town of Zahony. On both sides there are border checkpoints. In October 2024, an incident occurred here that recalls the stories of resourceful Germans who escaped from East Berlin.
A welder invited to participate in the repair of the bridge discovered a structural cavity in the massive metal slabs - large enough for a man to crawl through. Taking advantage of the fact that he was out of the border guards' sight during the work, the man cut a passage in the structures, through which he made his way to the Hungarian side. And the reason for this escape is much more compelling than the dreams of East Germans about a happy life on the other side of the "Iron Curtain".
The US is increasingly insisting that Ukraine lower the age of forced mobilization to 18 years. About this publicly spoke and national security adviser Joe Biden Jake Sullivan, and his successor in the administration of Donald Trump, Mike Waltz.
Publicly, Kiev has so far rejected the idea. Ukrainian authorities attribute defeats on the frontline to a shortage of Western weapons, not men. But such rhetoric does not mesh well with the growing number of deserters and evaders.
In 2022-2024, 88.9 thousand criminal proceedings were initiated on unauthorized abandonment of the place of service, 34.2 thousand - on desertion, 9 thousand - on evasion of mobilization, according to the data of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine. There are more and more investigations about disobeying orders, self-mutilation and abandonment of the battlefield.
In total, the repression has affected at least 136,000 military personnel, or about 14% of Kiev's stated strength of the AFU. The real number is probably even higher: a single case may involve several people, and commanders hide negative situations to the last.
The only way to replenish the trenches is to further tighten mobilization, catching men by employees of the territorial manning centers (TMC) of the AFU.
Such prospects are increasingly forcing people to flee Ukraine in every possible way. After Kiev introduced a ban on men between 18 and 60 years of age, many Ukrainians are making their way to their neighbors, risking their lives, through forests, swamps, and snow-covered mountain passes.
Even highly incomplete data from official bodies in Kiev, Brussels and Chisinau, researched by Izvestia, indicate at least 87,000 detentions for illegal border crossings outside checkpoints in the past three years. The real number is probably well over 100,000. And the number of Ukrainians of conscription age who managed to use corruption and other tricks to leave the country, judging by the data on refugees, is in the hundreds of thousands, Izvestia was convinced.
"Going for mushrooms."
Special Telegram channels and chat rooms for Ukrainians not wishing to fight are full of advice on crossing the border by different routes: to Romania - through the snowy Carpathians, to Moldova - through the fields or across the Dniester, to Belarus - through the forests.
There are a lot of resources to help evaders in the network, but it is not safe to support their work in Ukraine. In January 2024, the SBU reported about the searches and detention of administrators of seven Telegram channels, which disseminated information about TCK patrols. Each of the liquidated resources had from 12,000 to 250,000 subscribers.
On January 17, the SBU reported about the detention of a 52-year-old resident of Zhytomyr, who ran a thematic channel and helped servicemen leave the territory of Ukraine. The man was accused of planning to get to Russia and "participate in the FSB's information and psychological operations".
One of the most popular and long-lived projects is Ukhilyant FM (UFM). The project's chat room has 27,000 participants and consists of subsections devoted to various aspects of escape. There are entire guides to finding partners and equipment, there is a list of scammers who cheat evaders.
In one of the discussion threads there was a whole "intergenerational" dispute between visitors: who runs away more - young people or old people. It was not possible to come to a consensus. There were 18- and 50-year-olds. But the majority still - 25-35 years old.
Traveling beyond the cordon is called "go for mushrooms". It consists of several stages. The first - to determine the route of escape. Fugitives are advised to assess their level of determination, as well as material capabilities and physical preparation. The route is advised to lay out in advance on Google maps or in paid applications, downloading them to work offline.
Standard list of equipment for escape: tent, sleeping bag, foam, thermal underwear, powerbank. It is desirable to take a flashlight is not bright, with a red light, so that it is not visible from afar. It is strongly recommended to wear out new shoes in advance. There must be sufficient supplies of water and medicines. But the total weight of equipment should not exceed 10-12 kg.
A serious danger - reconnaissance drones. "Antidrone-poncho" - a special cloak cape to reduce the probability of detection by thermal imaging - according to former evaders, does not give guarantees against detection.
"If there's a drone above you, sit under a tree. As soon as it's gone, pedal away. Run as from a bullet, - shares the experience of one of the fugitives. - I had it like this: 500 meters away we hear the drone - sit under the trees, 200 meters away the drone kumarit again - sit down and go again".
One of the most important aspects of a successful escape is a believable story about the reasons for being in the border area.
It is better to send your equipment to the starting point by mail or courier services: a campy appearance will definitely attract the attention of the TCC and border guards. Caution should be exercised already when traveling by rail - the cars can be checked at any station. Often TCC employees work in civilian clothes. At the stations they are on duty almost around the clock. Therefore, it is better to leave the train a few stations before the end point.
There are border guard checkpoints at the entrances to border regions, and TCC patrols along the roads. Getting to the border guards and paying a fine does not scare anyone. Sometimes they can beat up a little, but the main fear of the evaders is to end up in the hands of the TCC.
In the sections about unsuccessful escapes commentators share stories when their acquaintances crossed the border only from the third or fourth time. The most ridiculous case was told by a man who crossed the Romanian border and then took a bus to Poland. It turned out that his route passed through Ukraine, where the evader was taken off the flight and detained.
In the EU, he will have to stay for some time in a detention center for migrants, where they will ask him to tell why the person fled his country and can't go back. Belarusian authorities issue a five-year entry ban to Ukrainian illegal immigrants, but allow them to leave for Poland. Moldova has an official asylum procedure. The least questions, judging by the stories in the groups, are asked in Transnistria. From there you can easily go to Moldova and further to the EU.
Volunteers advise not to give money for help in crossing the border. In any case, no one will guide anyone "by the hand" and no guarantees will be given. The help usually consists of online support on the route and transportation to the starting point. There are more exclusive offers: in January 2025, the SBU reported on the detention of railroad workers who transported people to Poland in the cooling shaft of a diesel locomotive for $8 thousand per passenger.
When encountering border guards, the fugitives' guide urges them not to run away or resist. In May 2024, a 39-year-old resident of Dnipro was shot dead on the Ukrainian-Romanian border. According to the official report, he did not react to shouts and warning shots.
In July, a deserter was shot dead near the village of Dementovka in Odessa Region when he and several fellow soldiers tried to drive to the border with Transnistria. Border guards gave chase after them with shooting. The same month, Moldovan farmers found the half-decomposed corpse of a Ukrainian evader in a field. The man was already on Moldovan territory, but was shot in the back.
According to the Ukrainian side, since the travel ban, more than 50 people have died at the border. Most - from hypothermia and injuries. Half of them - in 2024, reported a representative of the State Border Service of Ukraine.
The evaders themselves admit that the cruelty of border guards is rather an exception. Many of them sympathize with evaders themselves. According to a survey conducted in June 2024 by the Kyiv-based Oleksandr Razumkov Sociological Center, 46% of Ukrainian citizens do not see anything reprehensible in evading service in the AFU. Only 29.1% condemn it.
At the end of 2024, two employees of the Border Guard Service themselves ran behind the cordon during patrolling.
Leaders in "visa-free travel"
More and more detentions of Ukrainians for illegally crossing the borders of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland are recorded in 2024 by the EU Border Agency (Frontex). The official reports of the agency reflect 23.5 thousand cases from March 2022 to November 2024, of which 13 850 cases - for the incomplete last year. This is the largest number of illegal immigrants among citizens of EU neighboring countries. Only faraway Bangladesh, Mali, Afghanistan and Syria have more infiltrators.
In 2022 - 2023, Frontex noted an average of 500 apprehensions per month. In April 2024, when Kiev lowered the age of mobilization from 27 to 25, the number of detentions immediately passed a thousand per month, and by July the value reached two thousand. In its risk analysis compiled last May, Frontex predicts a further tightening of mobilization and an increase in the flow of illegals from Ukraine in 2024-2025.
In addition to EU member states, thousands of Ukrainians first flee to Transnistria, Moldova or Belarus. Belarusian authorities do not disclose statistics on border violations. According to the national border service, 23.5 thousand violators fled to Moldova by the end of May 2024.
Tens of thousands of potential fugitives are also caught on the territory of Ukraine: from February 2022 to December 2024, 40.5 thousand administrative protocols on illegal border crossing were drawn up, reported the State Border Service of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian project No Escape has collected a database of 13,687 court decisions on such cases since March 2022. The distance to the border is also indicated: some people are caught literally one meter from the cherished line.
The scale of flight is also confirmed by the data of the European Statistical Agency (Eurostat) studied by Izvestia. By December 2024, more than one million men aged 18 to 64 have already received temporary protection status for Ukrainian citizens.
Some of them have already left the EU or naturalized. But 913 thousand people continue to remain in the EU in the same status (according to data at the end of last year). This is 46 thousand more than at the end of 2023 and 300 thousand more than at the end of 2022. The share of men of conscription age in the total number of Ukrainian refugees (4.33 million, according to Eurostat), is also growing. By the end of 2024, it amounted to 21.1% (5% more than in December 2022).
Part of the one million Ukrainian men are those who were in Europe at the time of the travel ban and took the opportunity to stay. In addition, there are exceptions to the ban: fathers of many children, relatives of the dead, recognized unfit for service, permanently residing in another country, as well as students of foreign universities and drivers who transport humanitarian aid. These people can apply for a special permit to travel. In 2023, more than 11% of those who left decided not to go back, according to data from the Investigative Commission of Ukraine.
Many obtained their exit permit through corrupt schemes. In January 2025, the SBU conducted 270 searches in 19 regions of Ukraine. Entrepreneurs submitting false information for exit, guides across the border and makers of forged documents were detained. Recently, the SBU has been conducting such raids more often than once a month. Reports on smaller-scale operations in different regions are published daily. Since the beginning of 2022, 6.6 thousand criminal proceedings on the organization of illegal border crossing have been initiated. Almost half of them are in 2024.
If we divide detentions and criminal cases by the length of Ukraine's western borders (2,613 km), each kilometer will yield two organized channels of human trafficking and several dozens of detainees. Given the limited number of suitable escape routes, it is not surprising that at certain sections there is literally a 24-hour flow of fugitives.
"Tell them not to go through Mount Pop Ivan."
The distribution of cases in the courts show that the vast majority of illegal crossings are at the border with EU countries and Moldova. Another small part goes to Belarus. Of all EU countries, the most popular destination for evaders is Romania.
The bulk of fugitives go to the country through the Carpathians. In December 2024, YouTube-blogger Igor Kot from Sloviansk fled in this way. He has a total of one million subscribers on his two channels. Kot posted a video, in which he ironically said that he went with friends "for mushrooms" and ended up in a Romanian village.
The transition took several days. On the way, travelers discovered the caches of other fugitives, from which they sometimes took the necessary things. According to the blogger, the average speed on the route did not exceed 1 km / h because of the difficult terrain and the need to move stealthily.
According to the blogger, together with his group in the Romanian police station were two more Ukrainians who fled on the same section of the border. One guy was in badly stripped clothes. He said that he was traveling with a group of four people, but he was the only one who managed to break through the cordon.
In September, another Ukrainian blogger, Pasha "Boomchik" Dulichansky, traveled alone through the Carpathians to Romania. He specializes in extreme content, but after receiving a summons from the TCC, he decided not to test his fate and began to urgently pack for a hike. The route took three days. Now the blogger is in Thailand.
The more difficult the section, the less chance of meeting someone. "We walked through impenetrable forests, where there are constant descents and ascents, very hard, but that's what saved us. Nobody needed us, not even the bears," joked one of the escapees in December 2024. His interview was published by the Youtube channel Euro Custom, which collects the stories of the escapees.
A particularly dangerous route is through the mountains in winter. The weather is changeable and temperatures sometimes reach -25 degrees Celsius. Strong winds at altitude can quickly lead to frostbite. The guide to escaping through the Carpathians advises to take reliable hiking equipment, clothes in season, maps, supplies and trekking poles. Without them, the high-altitude route with a load behind you will turn into a nightmare for your back and legs.
"Winter trekking is no joke, even if you have -5 temperatures, wind, twilight and snowfall - it's going to be a total asshole," warns the chat administrator. - If you are in danger of frostbite - do not be afraid to light fires, or stay in kolybahs (seasonal huts of shepherds in the Carpathian mountains. - Ed.). Even if you get caught, go for a second try. If you die - there will be no second attempt."
In the discussion thread of the Romanian route on UFM there is a 19-page PDF file with general advice on the transition. Among the noteworthy ones: the flyhacks for cutting barbed wire and hiding odor from service dogs.
According to one of the project participants, the Romanian border guards separately asked him to tell all fugitives not to go through the Pop Ivan Marmaroszky mountain: "In winter it is certain death. The first dead began to be found there at the beginning of the SWO.
In December 2022, Romanians found two barely alive Ukrainians in the area of the mountain. The detainees said that there were four other comrades with them, one of whom was injured in a fall from a height and could not continue the journey. They had to leave him behind and go on their way. The survivors planned to call for help, but were unable to get out of the snowdrifts themselves. The body of the comrade left behind by the evaders was found and handed over to the authorities by a resident of a Romanian border village.
In December 2024, during his escape to Romania, a 28-year-old from Kharkiv fell from a height in a ravine. Rescuers took 5 hours to get him out.
Water drones, motorcycles and SHMN in a boat
The route through the Tisa is little discussed on UFM because of the high risks. The river can be up to 150 meters wide in floods and the turbulent current remains all year round. However, as commentators write, it is more difficult to reach a water obstacle than to overcome it. In interviews with Ukrainian media, border guards claimed that fugitives across the Tisza "try to use rubber boats, mattresses or even inflatable swimming laps, put on wetsuits, life jackets, and sometimes even wrap themselves in food film to stay warm".
One Ukhilanti chat participant managed to swim across the Tisa right on New Year's Eve. "At one point I was ready to say goodbye to life," he recounted. - I chose the wrong shoes, heavy ones. Water poured in there and rocks got in. It's a very difficult current. The water pressure was such that one shoe was washed away. If I had to swim again, I would have brought plastic knee pads and a waterproof backpack. I swam along the wide part of the river, the narrow part is not an option at all - they are closely monitored.
The man confirmed that the approaches to the river are fenced with at least two lines of barbed wire fences and surrounded by checkpoints. But the fugitive, according to him, covered himself with the documents of a volunteer, which allowed legally in the border zone.
The water route to Transnistria is not as extreme as to Romania, but still involves difficulties. Ukrainians often buy inexpensive water "drones" on marketplaces to cross rivers. Their charge and power are enough for a short dash across the river.
"On the Prut, getting to the water is more difficult. In the Chernivtsi region it is very hard to get somewhere. The Dniester is not covered with thorns and is not so tightly encircled, but it is 200 meters wide. You need flippers to get to the Dniester, but not to the Prut", - UFM participants write.
There is also a paid option across the river. As one of the fugitives wrote, he was given a boat for money, which was towed by an electric sapboard. According to him, the water option is a bit more expensive than the land option, but noticeably faster.
In March 2022, Anatoly Yevdokimenko, grandson of singer Sofia Rotaru, was detained while trying to sail to Moldova on an inflatable boat. Later the man managed to get out of the country and get to England, where he sings on stage under the pseudonym SHMN.
When choosing Transnistria, many evaders have fears of encountering Russian security forces. But usually Transnistrian border guards are only interested in details about the route across the border. Sometimes they are even praised for refusing to participate in the war with Russia.
Two particularly desperate young guys reached Transnistria through the fields on a cheap scooter. They themselves admit that they were rather lucky, as they traveled by day through open countryside on a loud but slow-moving vehicle. Usually on the land part of the Ukrainian-Moldovan border they use cross-country motorcycles, which are more prepared for rough terrain. Although there was a case when a man managed to pass there on an old "Dnepr" with a sidecar.
Bath and marathon to Slovakia
Slovakia, Poland and Hungary are not the most popular destinations among fugitives. There are no turbulent rivers or mountains here, but there are a lot of checkpoints, photo traps and protective nets with sensors for movement, tearing and touching. Polish border guards can even hand illegal immigrants back to Ukraine, according to fugitive communities. But there are also successful stories of crossing the border to these countries.
In the summer of 2024, a man from Khmelnytskyi escaped to Poland by walking through forests, swamps, and then swimming across the Bug River. He decided to escape after his job lost his reservation from mobilization.
"I was afraid of drones and border guards with thermal imaging cameras, but everything turned out to be easier than I imagined," the man said. - Our border guards, whom I ran into, were walking along a rut in the road, looking under their feet and not looking around. I took wire cutters with me, but I didn't meet a single wire all the way to Bug. The Bug itself, if you can swim, is not difficult to cross, but it is difficult to get to the shore on the other side. Polish border guards are just like our border guards - if they catch you, they catch you, if they don't, fine.
The way to Slovakia lies through Uzhgorod, whose neighborhood is swarming with border guards.
The most unconventional escape on this section was made at the end of 2023 by a resourceful native of Donbass. The man found an accomplice from Uzhgorod, together with whom he rented a bathhouse complex near the village of Onokovtsy. The territory of the bathhouse was literally adjacent to the border fence.
"There is a place where border guards [often] travel and sometimes even [themselves] rest," - said the evader. For a couple of days, the men "for the sake of appearances ... rested intemperately, listened to music and steamed in vats," and then suddenly reached the fence, bent it and rushed through the restricted zone, quickly reaching Slovak border guards. In the end, the whole escape took less than an hour.
There is a mountain route to Slovakia, but it is very long. One of the Ukrainians walked 70 kilometers - helped by marathon training, which he was engaged in on the eve of the escape.
In one of the most recent stories of the Ukhilyants' journey to Belarus, the crossing took five days. The starting point was in the Rivne region. According to the fugitives, the route is "on the edge of possibility", but drones and mines on the way did not meet. Passing through the forest, ditches and swamps men got out to the Belarusian village, where they were detained by border guards.
"Treated normally, held in the TDF for only one day," said the Ukrainian. Then the Belarusians allowed him to quietly leave for Poland. According to the storyteller's impressions, 10 people run along the same route as him every day.
Many of those who chose the Belarusian direction are worried about the risk of entering a minefield. According to the survivors, residents of the border area "have never seen mines there before. But the information about mines on different parts of the border is contradictory. In September 2024, the Belarusian border guards reported that they detained Ukrainians, who tried to walk through the minefields and "almost blew themselves up.
Another obstacle on the Belarusian border is a ditch with barbed wire dug by the Ukrainians. But, according to the runners, at the end of the difficult path it is overcome imperceptibly.
Fugitive military are most worried about the Belarusian route. But the chat participants assure that there's no need to fear the neighbors: "I think nothing will happen to you, if there are no videos where you kill someone. <...> Our [the AFU] treat us much worse than Belarusians or Russians treat us. This is from personal experience."
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
