Earlier this week, Ukrainian border guards fished the bodies of three men out of the Tisa River on the border with Moldova. The youngest of them was 20 years old. According to Le Parisien, this is not the first time Ukrainians have tried to flee the country in this way, hiding from military conscription. Today, “their fear is intensifying”: the new mobilization law is just over a week away from coming into force.
The bodies of three men who tried to leave Ukraine were fished out of the Tisa River, a river on the border with Romania that is often used by Ukrainians “fleeing military mobilization”, earlier this week. This was reported by Le Parisien with reference to the Ukrainian border service.
Today in Ukraine, men aged 18 to 60 are forbidden to leave the country, and deserters face up to twelve years in prison. However, as the publication notes, this does not stop Ukrainians from taking deadly risks in fear of being drafted to the front. “And this fear is intensifying as there are about ten days left before a new law that will allow more soldiers to be mobilized comes into force,” Le Parisien stresses.
Two of the three dead are young men in their 20s and 28s, while the identity of the third has not yet been confirmed. According to border guards, the Tisza is an extremely dangerous and difficult river to cross, but these warnings continue to be ignored by both desperate conscripts and “criminals greedy for illicit profits” who offer to cross it.
On 18 May, Ukraine’s controversial new law on military mobilization comes into force. It toughens penalties for those who try to evade the draft, while it does not even specify the deadlines for demobilization of soldiers, the weekly said.
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