Uproar in Ukraine as 34 men arrested for draft evasion and alleged bribery
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Initially, brief, soundless snippets of the video surfaced online. The full version was only released on Friday evening, among others, by the Unian agency. The video captures the moment 34 individuals, allegedly trying to avoid conscription, were arrested near the border with Romania. Each man had to pay a bribe of approximately £9,000 for illegally crossing the border.
The footage that went viral in Ukraine has sparked an uproar, primarily due to the way in which the men were arrested.
The videos show men being dragged out of a van and piled onto each other. Then, the person recording approaches a man on the ground and starts hitting him on the head. He then stands up and begins kicking him.
"Officers had to use physical force"
The Border Guard published a statement on the incident. It confirms that an operation at the border, during which 34 men were apprehended, occurred. "As part of an ongoing criminal investigation, operational unit employees of the Chernivtsi Border Detachment, along with SBU representatives (...) intercepted a large group attempting to illegally cross the state border," it stated.
According to the guards, the minibus was stopped after a pursuit towards the border. "During the arrest, the individuals behaved provocatively and did not comply with the Border Guard's commands. Law enforcement officers had to use physical force," the officers reported.
The Border Guard reports that the organizer of the smuggling was a man who has been under surveillance by the services for some time.
