Ukrainian escapees face perilous journey amid crackdowns
On Romanian territory, two Ukrainian citizens suspected of assaulting border guards were detained. The incident occurred during an illegal attempt to cross the border in Transcarpathia.
The incident occurred on 25 May in Transcarpathia. The suspects are 36- and 31-year-old residents of Zaporizhzhia. According to the portal OBOZ.UA, the men who wanted to escape Ukraine triggered border sensors. Officers from the 27th border unit were dispatched to the location.
Shots at the border. Perpetrators fled to Romania
The border guards wanted to detain the men. To this end, one of them fired two warning shots into the air. The portal describes that the perpetrators not only did not stop but began to attack the officers.
In the scuffle, one of the men grabbed a weapon from a guard and fired approximately five shots in their direction. The men then fled to Romania, where local border guards detained them. Ukraine has already filed a request for their deportation.
Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova are countries to which conscription-age men are fleeing to avoid mobilization. Ukrainian border guards reported that another man's body was found in the Tisza River. He was a resident of Transcarpathia, born in 1975.
On 25 May, border guards detained a 28-year-old man from Odessa who attempted to cross the Dniester River on a children's raft at the Moldovan border. He testified that he prepared the route himself, carrying flippers and a small backpack.
Fleeing conscription
At the end of April, Ukrainian Border Guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko reported that about 30 Ukrainians have died while attempting to illegally cross the border since the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022.
- Some lost their lives trying to cross a mountain river or traverse the mountains, he added. Since the beginning of the war, the border guard has detected around 450 criminal groups attempting to smuggle people across the border.
