11 January 2024 , 22:40
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A short Ukrainian man disguised himself as a child in a pink hat as he tried to flee across a treacherous border river.
Border guards patrolling the River Tisza have seen desperate attempts to leave the war-torn country since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. Under martial law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving without special exemption.
It has led to some outlandish attempts by those hoping to avoid conscription or escape economic hardship, by making the perilous crossing to Romania. Some plunge into the freezing waters wearing wetsuits and life jackets, while others have used car tyres or rubber rings to aid them.
In November last year, border guards caught two men with pink flamingo armbands as they swam across the frontier river. And the following month saw a short 29-year-old man pretending to be a child with a blow-up mattress, stopped as he reached the river's edge.
Some of the attempted escapees have drowned, with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the DPSU, pulling their corpses from the Tisza's icy waters. One exhausted man rescued by Major Oleh Seleznyov and his team was actually risking it all to get back into Ukraine.
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Stepan Rishkovych, 31, was running a business throughout the war in the Czech Republic but missed his wife and family in Ukraine. “First, he thanked us for saving his life,” Seleznyov told the Times. “Then he told us why he had come back to Ukraine. He said he wanted to be home for Christmas.”
More than 17,100 Ukrainians have been detained by the DPSU trying to leave the country illegally since the Russian invasion. Those numbers look set to climb as a contentious new bill seeks to mobilise another 500,000 men for military service.
Clauses in the bill, which is going through the Ukrainian parliament before President Zelensky signs it into law, include lowering draft age from 27 to 25, limiting draft exemptions, mobilising men online, and increasing punishments for those avoiding mobilisation.
The Border Guards detachment at Mukachevo controls a 320km stretch of the border with Romania and Hungary that is favoured by those trying to flee. Spokeswoman Lesia Fedorova said: “We are ready for them. We are not just present with assets along the border. We have many units in depth watching what is going on.”
The struggle between escapees and smugglers and the guards themselves has been evolving with the war. Some originally used fake papers or hid in vehicles using the official crossings. But as the authorities got wise to the ploys, methods had to change. Many are paying out extortionate prices to buy smugglers' guides which promise to lead them through forests or cross the Tisza river.