MOSCOW, August 26. /TASS/. About 1,000 Ukrainian men of draft age have been detained at the border with Belarus since the beginning of the year, twice as many as the previous years of Russia’s special military operation combined, Russian law enforcement agencies told TASS.

"According to statistics from the Ukrainian border service, nearly 1,000 Ukrainian citizens of draft age were detained at the border with Belarus in 2025. This is twice as many as in all previous years since the start of the special military operation," the sources said.

According to their information, 61 people were detained at the border in 2022, 26 in 2023, and 336 in 2024. The sources noted that the prospect of deportation from Europe and conscription into the Ukrainian armed forces is forcing those who once "paid huge sums of money to flee Ukraine to Europe" to flee to Belarus instead.

The law enforcement agencies also pointed out that the surge in people trying to cross the border occurred in 2024, after Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive. "It then became clear that the losses in the Ukrainian military were enormous, the territorial recruitment centers began to forcibly recruit citizens into the Ukrainian armed forces with redoubled force, and there was talk in Europe of the need to return Ukrainian men to their homeland," the sources said.