The Russian-Ukrainian war poses a serious threat to Ukrainian men, including Transcarpathian Hungarian men, who try to escape from the fighting even at the cost of risking their lives.
The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior is preparing a bill that would punish those men of military age who cross the border illegally during martial law, that is, those who flee abroad to avoid conscription.
Currently, there are no rules on how to prosecute those who travel abroad illegally, they are now starting to work out the details and will make a final decision after the end of the war, Interior Minister Ihor Klimenko said at the end of May, adding that they will study international experience on the subject.
"How should we deal with our citizens who have already broken the law once? They must be held accountable for breaking the law. I think all citizens want this and will understand if the state restricts the further movement of these citizens, at least abroad," the minister said, according to the English-language Ukrainian news portal The New Voice of Ukraine, V4NA reported.
According to Ukrainian law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from traveling abroad during martial law, with certain exceptions.
According to the data of the Ukrainian border police, between the declaration of martial law and the end of last year, more than 12,000 people tried to leave Ukraine illegally, 15 of them died.
More than 2,100 criminal proceedings were initiated for forgery of documents, illegal passenger transport and draft evasion. 950 people were indicted and more than 350 were prosecuted. The service said the bodies of 12 drowned people were found along the river sections of the Ukrainian-Romanian border and three more in the mountains.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at the same time, more than 8,200,000 people have already fled from Ukraine to Europe alone, among whom there are also many men. Some of them left the war-torn country legally, but many of them broke the laws in force by doing so, they are the ones who tried to escape the conscription and the war.
At the same time, it is very understandable that many people want to escape from the service, because many people have already lost their lives in the battles. According to an American soldier fighting on the front line in eastern Ukraine, a soldier lives an average of only four hours in this section.
There is no data on how many people fear that they may be conscripted at any time, or even forcibly taken off the street. Several videos of Ukrainian men being forced by soldiers to accompany them have been posted on social media, although their authenticity cannot be verified.
However, Ukrainians' resistance to conscription is understandable, as cemeteries are filled with grieving families every day.
