Nearly 100,000 Young Men Flee Ukraine In 2 Months Following Loosened Restrictions

Media reports in Europe, including in The Telegraph and Politico, are this week documenting a new massive surge in young men fleeing Ukraine in order to not be conscripted, in which case they could be sent to front lines and face certain death.

“Almost 100,000 fighting-age Ukrainian men have left the country in the past two months after Volodymyr Zelensky eased departure rules, new figures show,” The Telegraph reports.

The figures are primarily based on the Polish border guard, as the neighboring EU country shares a long border with Ukraine, and has been from the start of the war absorbing refugees and trying to maintain strict counts and records.

“Poland’s border guard said 99,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 had crossed the frontier – the primary route out of the country – since regulations to ensure that Kyiv had enough soldiers were relaxed at the end of August,” The Telegraph writes, and then reminds readers: “In comparison, the entire British Army has around 70,000 personnel.”

Even after well over three years of grinding war and a huge loss of men in the fighting, there is yet no mobilization of those aged 18 to 25 in Ukraine. This fact has time and again angered American politicians, who have pressed Kiev to have standards in line with most of the rest of the world’s militaries. 

At the tail end of the Biden administration, Zelensky’s office had the audacity to shift blame onto the West for not getting enough weapons to the front lines, arguing that more manpower would make little difference if there’s not enough weapons and ammo to go around.

“It doesn’t make sense to see calls for Ukraine to lower the mobilization age, presumably in order to draft more people, when we can see that previously announced equipment is not arriving on time. Because of these delays, Ukraine lacks weapons to equip already mobilized soldiers,” a statement said at the time.

But Zelensky’s martial law program had blocked Ukrainian men aged from 18 to 60 from leaving the country. But then just this past summer this restriction was loosened. 

The major change was reported at the time as follows: “Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has revised travel rules and allowed men aged 18 to 22 to cross the border, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram on Aug. 26.”

While men aged 25 to 60 can be conscripted into the military and sent to the front lines, men 24 and under still cannot. Again, this has been hugely controversial as even US members of Congress have complained that Washington is sinking billions into the war effort against Russia, and Kiev won’t even tap into its most eligible fighting-age demographic.

And so the expected drain of young men from the country is happening. The Telegraph explains Kiev’s rationale as: “By granting young Ukrainians more freedoms to leave, it was hoped more would return and volunteer to fight at a later date.” But unless there’s the unlikely scenario of Ukraine going on the offensive and pushing back Russian lines – or else a full and final peace settlement – the trend of young men fleeing Ukraine is unlikely to be reversed anytime soon.