The queue of cars slowed as they reached the checkpoint. Armed Ukrainian border guards checked papers and inspected vehicles. Deserters were being hunted down. A bus driver was growing impatient: "Please hurry, my passengers are late and will miss their plane!" He hurriedly opened the cargo hold. Every nook and cranny was examined. There was nothing suspicious, the bus started up again and passed the Palanca-Mayaky-Udobne border crossing, heading for Moldova.

Since the Russian invasion in February 2022 and the ban on men aged 18 to 60 leaving the country, Ukrainians have been trying to cross the border illegally every day to escape mobilization. "At the beginning, we had 80 to 90 cases a day. Today, it's about 25," said Andriy Demshenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Border Guard. There is no way of knowing how many attempts have been successful.

Over the months, the tightening of security and border patrols has dissuaded some would-be soldiers from leaving. But the pressure on men of fighting age has increased still further since a controversial draft law provides for mass mobilization to replace the soldiers – exhausted, wounded or dead – who have been holding the front line for the past two years.

Metal boxes under vehicles

The country's western border provides a good vantage point from which to gauge the distress of these Ukrainians, who will do anything to avoid being drafted. Some of the more unusual strategies were almost funny, such as the time when a man, disguised as a woman, was flushed out of a bus after dark. The man wore a long-haired wig, a scarf and sunglasses over his beard, which was clearly visible.

But other attempts at desertion turned tragic. Many men venture out at night through the forest or across the Tisza River, which runs alongside Romania; others hide in goods trucks, luggage bays, or even metal boxes welded to the underside of vehicles. "They stay like that for hours without ventilation, risking their lives," said Anastasia Gayevska, press officer for five border crossings between Ukraine and Moldova. Since February 2022, 24 Ukrainians have died trying to leave the country illegally, 19 of them by drowning, according to official figures provided to Le Monde.

At the same time, 350 groups of smugglers have been arrested. They proliferate on social media, often delivering their instructions remotely. "We've had cases where criminal groups have supplied small inflatable boats, buoys and duck-shaped armbands," said Demshenko. "It may make you smile, but in reality it's extremely sad that grown men have been reduced to this, and to taking such risks." When arrested, deserters are fined 8,500 hryvnias (€205). Smugglers face up to nine years' imprisonment.

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