[REGNUM] Men aged 18–60 cannot simply pick up and leave Ukraine from the beginning of the SVO - from February 24, 2022. However, there are several ways to overcome this travel ban. Each of them is associated with significant costs and certain risks. The Ukrainian state is trying in every possible way to stop the leakage of the mobilization resource.
Thirty years ago, the film Schindler's List was released in the United States, which collected many Oscars and made the story of a German industrialist who organized an ingenious scheme to save Jews from imminent death well-known. It is known that history repeats itself - in the form of a farce.
Therefore, 30 years after the release of Spielberg's film, we have a Ukrainian "Schindler" - an Odessa psychiatrist who, for $ 7,000, organized disability reports for those liable for military service with their confirmation by the military medical commission. With such a package of documents it was possible to travel abroad. The psychiatrist has been uncovered and will be judged. This is not the first such case, a similar "criminal" was exposed in Odessa back in August.
For those who didn't have $7,000 for a "real" fake certificate, there was an option to buy a fake one. They were printed for $1,600 by an underground printing house discovered by the Odessa police in November 2022. Rather, they issued not only a fake certificate, but the entire package of documents at once: a military ID, a medical report, a certificate of deregistration from the territorial recruitment center (TCK - a former military registration and enlistment office).
It cost 4.5 times cheaper than buying a real document. It is possible that this is why the printing house was closed. In order not to bring down the price of competitors.
WHY DON'T THEY RUN
At this point, we need to make a small digression for Russian readers who write comments on the Internet: “Run from there! Leave, why are you sitting there and waiting for mobilization?"
Let's even highlight with a bold from the new paragraph:
Men aged 18–60 cannot simply pick up and leave Ukraine from the beginning of the SVO - from February 24, 2022.
Last autumn, when partial mobilization started in Russia, certain restrictive measures were also introduced. But there was still no complete ban. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, Rostourism could interpret the same norms in different ways, while the authorities of the border regions, to the best of their understanding, solved the dilemma “let it go or not let it go”. But with the completion of the mobilization, all this ended.
In Ukraine, everything is different. You can leave if you are deregistered (due to age or health status); as a disabled person of I, II groups or accompanying a disabled person of I, II groups; father of 3 or more children under the age of 18 or a single father (widower) with a child; to study.
But there are nuances.
"HE BURIED YOU"
The "widower and child" scheme was one of the first. It was already used in March 2022. The husband and wife left separately, while the children went with their father, and the father with a fake certificate stating that his wife had died/disappeared. Now this scheme is almost never used - as well as leaving under the guise of a disabled person with the conclusion of a medical and social examination (MSEK).
Both types of documents were forged too actively, control over them was tightened, and the opportunity to leave almost disappeared. From 2023, the holder of a certificate of disability must prove that he received the required social benefits from the state and provide a certificate of deregistration.
That is why the Odessa military doctors beat 7,000 dollars for a full package: just a disability, without deregistration, costs 2-4 times cheaper.
FICTITIOUS MARRIAGE
But the scheme of leaving through a fictitious marriage with mothers of many children works. And the law here is surprisingly not strict:
“According to the law, a man who is married to a mother of many children can receive the status of a father of many children even without adopting children.” those. married, moved out (even without a family is possible), divorced.
Another scheme works similarly - through marriage with a disabled woman. Moreover, since the fall of 2022, such a husband can also leave Ukraine without his soul mate. In addition, now she works for the third, most massive group of disabilities.
The average cost of such a marriage is from 2,000 to 3,000 dollars.
FOR WEALTHY GUYS
You can not cheat, but find "exits" and simply give money to the border guards, leaving Ukraine illegally.
Forbes-Ukraine, on condition of anonymity, asked its source in the Ministry of Economy whether there were many such cases?
“Tens of thousands of men… [Our source] says the ministry has agreed not to disclose numbers of ‘illegal’ border crossings so as not to demotivate society.”
Yes, that's possible. Even now, albeit more difficult.
But, firstly, it is expensive and not for everyone. Secondly, if you meddle only with money, without connections, there is a risk of repeating the fate of Ostap Bender (“Branzuletka! Bronzuletka!”). This happened even with deputies of the Verkhovna Rada.
Departure for money is quite shady and semi-legal.
In this case, the exit occurs through one of the legal ways: as a truck driver, a volunteer (from volunteer organizations whose employees are allowed to leave), under the guise of an employee of a company / organization who are allowed to travel. Basically, such privileges are available through the “Shlyakh” (“Way”) system, a database of persons who have a “green light” at the border.
The current price ranges from $5,000 to $6,000, which is twice as high as in summer: the Security Service of Ukraine has begun to file permits in the database.
LEARN, STUDENT!
Studying is an effective way to hang out, but, unfortunately, not to escape. There are enough universities in the EU countries that accept Ukrainian citizens for study. This instantly made going to school an attractive escape scheme: legally, inexpensively, prestigiously (I didn’t run away, but went to study).
But only in theory.
In practice, the border guards turned these students home en masse.
Moreover, they supposedly have the right to leave (says the Ministry of Internal Affairs), but the State Border Service, together with the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, have found a way to bypass this right. Students were required to take permission to travel to the TCC, but they simply did not issue it there.
But no one bothers to enter a Ukrainian university and gnaw at the granite of science there. The study delay is still in effect.
WAY SOUTH
In theory, there is another legal and relatively inexpensive way to exit - through the Vasilyevka checkpoint in the Zaporozhye region. This is the only officially valid route across the front line. It is here that the exchanges of prisoners and the bodies of the dead take place.
But this route has some disadvantages:
"On the Ukrainian side, a very small number are produced - 20-40 cars a day, although there are much more people who want to. Some people have been waiting in line for more than a month to enter our territory," says Natalya Romanichenko, head of the Vasilyevsky district of the Zaporozhye region of Russia.
There are facts of extortion of bribes and robbery of refugees by the Ukrainian side. Not to mention the fact that you can get stuck in a no-man's-land for several days and/or get under fire.
HOW NOT TO GET TO THE FRONT IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THREE CHILDREN
The only completely legal, safe and inexpensive way to leave Ukraine is with children. Three or more. Unfortunately, not everyone has them.
All other methods are either dangerous or too costly. 5,000 to 10,000 dollars, even in peacetime, is serious money for the average Ukrainian family.
Just for these reasons, a huge number of men (including the author of these lines) are still in Ukraine. There are no reliable “exits”, and there are no such amounts for a bribe. It is too dangerous to drive through Vasilievka. Especially with family.
Of course, there is a risk of thundering in the TCC, but there are ways to significantly reduce it:
- Do not live at the place of registration..
- Do not get a job (officially), work remotely (the bonus is the absence of direct taxes to the budget, which today mainly goes to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine).
- Stop going outside from morning until 8-9 pm. Quarantine survived, no stranger. For extreme cases - a taxi.
- Subscribe and monitor telegram channels and chats that track the work and routes of "runners" from military registration and enlistment offices.
- In the Ukrainian military registration and enlistment offices, it’s still a mess, so there is a very real chance that your personal file will simply be lost (as happened with the author of these lines), which means that even the summons will not come to the place of registration.
- Trust in God that will carry
In fact, the worst thing is not even that we are locked up here and risk being faced with a choice: to the front or to prison. And the fact that even the Third Reich had its own Schindler. And we don't have it. Only such as on Malaya Arnautskaya.
February 12, 2023
Anatoly Savenko