From Le Figaro with AFP
Posted 22 minutes ago
A Ukrainian soldier from the 42nd Battalion, 57th Brigade takes part in an exercise not far from the front line in the Donetsk region on June 20, 2023. GENYA SAVILOV / AFP
Due to the conflict, Ukrainians between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the territory unless they have special permission. But faced with the violence of war, men originally determined to fight chose to take a different path.
“I saw a severed head, someone was shot”: After a month at the front, Ukrainian conscript Ivan Ichchenko deserted last year, even if it meant paying a fortune in bribes and suffering disgrace.
Like him, other men initially determined to fight the Russian invasion chose, faced with the violence of the conflict, to compromise and exploit the corruption networks that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is now trying to root out. “I used to think I was a superhero, but when you see war in real life, you realize you have nothing to do with it,” said the 30-year-old, long hair, stubble and a ring on his finger. “To stop seeing this,” he paid $5,000 in bribes for a car with government plates to drop him off in a forest near Hungary, where a hole in a fence allowed him to cross the border illegally.
Due to the war, Ukrainians aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country unless they have special permission. Deserters face prison sentences of up to twelve years, those doing military service face five years in prison. Ivan Ichchenko must therefore now go into exile. It is widespread in Europe and is currently located in Dresden, East Germany.
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Fake medical certificate
Even though the Russian invasion has united the nation, some still prefer to leave the country. According to border guard spokesman Andriï Demchenko, 13,600 people who tried to leave the country illegally have been arrested since the start of the war. Around 6,100 others were caught with forged documents, giving an overview of the phenomenon, although the AFP has not received overall statistics from authorities on all those who have managed to evade the flag’s pull.
President Zelensky addressed the issue very publicly in early August, firing all regional officials responsible for conscription and more than 200 recruiting centers were raided. The head of state denounces the corruption of the conscription administration, which he describes as “treason”.
However, this type of arrangement is far from new, as corruption has been rife in Ukraine for decades. “Everyone knows someone who can help,” confirms to AFP another exile who introduces himself as Ivan and, not proudly, prefers to keep his last name silent. He was fired in May based on a false medical certificate and was paid $5,000. “I know it’s wrong, it’s disturbing,” said the 24-year-old.
Pull
The guilt faced by these Ukrainians who refuse to fight when they meet fellow countrymen across Western Europe. This is the case of Evguène Kouroutch, who sometimes faces embarrassing situations while driving a taxi in Warsaw. “I was told: ‘Our husbands are fighting at the front and you cowards are hiding!’” whispers this 38-year-old reserve officer, who was in Poland when the war broke out and gave up returning to his country. A man of his age does not go unnoticed among the millions of Ukrainians welcomed into Poland: half of the refugees are children and more than three-quarters of the adults are women separated from their spouses who have come forward.
He says he understands this is a “painful” and “conflictual” issue. “I know that I have to defend my country, but at the same time my family needs me and I have a duty to take care of them,” he explains, torn. He is originally from Odessa in southern Ukraine and brought with him his five-year-old son Kirill and his eight-year-old daughter Anastasia, as well as his wife. “When I look at them, it gives me strength and reassures me that I’m not doing this for nothing.”
Also with an eye on the future of his family, Bogdan Marynenko set off for Poland in August 2022, two days before his eighteenth birthday, at the urging of his relatives, while his father fought with weapons in hand. “If something happens to him, my mother and my sisters will only have me,” remembers this young man who swims in clothes that are too big. Today he works on construction sites to keep the pot boiling.