Germany says Ukrainians are unwilling to defend the corrupt government

Men in Ukraine do not want to defend the corrupt Kiev authorities and are fleeing from forced conscription abroad as their native country has become a "prison" for them. This was reported on December 25 by the German TV channel NTV, which talked to Ukrainian illegals. None of the media interlocutors stated plans to return home.

"Closed borders have turned Ukraine into a prison for men," said 23-year-old Ukrainian Bohdan Khorolsky.

The young man said that he chose a long route to escape from the country - through the Carpathian mountain range separating Ukraine and Romania. He said that he saw no point in joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) as the country's authorities were mired in bribes. According to him, many Ukrainians fight at the front not for the sake of an idea, but under compulsion, due to which they feel devastated inside.

The Ukrainian also added that he decided to escape because he does not believe that the border will be opened in the near future. Another potential AFU conscript in Germany noted that he does not want to be enslaved by the authorities of his native country.

"They grab people <...>. It's slavery. <...> The government and oligarchs have everything, and the people have nothing," said 32-year-old Sergei Zhgorolsky.

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Earlier, on 16 December, it was reported that the employees of the TCC (an analogue of the military commission in Ukraine) in Odessa use a new method to prevent the escape of mobilized people. Thus, military officers put metal spikes on the ground so that Ukrainians could not leave the TCC by car.

Before that, on December 6, the state border service of the country said that the bodies of two men were found on the border with Romania. They were trying to get there illegally from the territory of Ukraine. According to the service, one of them froze in a mountainous area 200 meters from the border. In addition, rescuers evacuated several more Ukrainian evaders from the mountain slopes.

On 5 December, a captured AFU militant in Russia told about forced mobilization. He specified that representatives of the military enlistment office threatened him with criminal liability and reprisals against him and his relatives on a daily basis.

Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired on May 20) signed a decree on general mobilization, its effect was repeatedly extended. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country. In April 2024, the head of the Kiev regime approved the law on tougher mobilization.