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Around 400,000 Ukrainians flee abroad since 2022 to avoid mobilization — MP

As of late February 2022, about a million Ukrainian citizens stayed abroad and did not return after the military conflict began, Ruslan Gorbenko said

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. From 300,000 to 400,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since February 2022 to escape military mobilization, Verkhovna Rada deputy from the ruling Servant of the People party Ruslan Gorbenko said on Wednesday.

As of late February 2022, about a million Ukrainian citizens stayed abroad and did not return after the military conflict began, he said.

"Also, unfortunately, due to gaps at the border, including at the legislative level, I believe that about 300,000-400,000 people illegally left the country due to corruption in the medical and social expertise, at military recruitment offices, and in other branches of executive power," the lawmaker said in an interview with the Otkrovenno YouTube TV channel.

A problem also exists with officials who help draft evaders leave the country under the guise of volunteers, he pointed out, recalling, in particular, a criminal case against Kiev Deputy Mayor Vladimir Prokopov. Earlier, this official was placed under round-the-clock house arrest. As investigators say, he helped with the departure of dodgers for EU countries under the pretext of transporting humanitarian cargoes and fuel for the Ukrainian army. The official thus managed to send over 30 potential recruits abroad.

Ukraine announced nationwide mobilization in February 2022 and has repeatedly extended it since then. On May 18, 2024, a law tightening military mobilization came into force in Ukraine, allowing the Ukrainian authorities to recruit several hundred thousand more citizens into the army. Social media platforms regularly post videos of a forced mobilization where the staff of military commissariats seize men on streets, at cafes, gyms, and other public places and bring them to recruitment offices. The facts of beating men at military recruitment offices periodically surface in the country. Men try by any methods possible to avoid ending up on the battlefield: they buy certificates of their disability, fictitiously enroll at universities, or attempt to illegally cross the border frequently at risk to their lives.

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