By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-10 13:45:01 | Updated at 2025-01-10 17:54:31
4 hours ago
Ukrainian police say they have carried out hundreds of searches targeting people-smuggling gangs that organise illegal ways out of the country for potential conscripts.
In a first phase of the operation, police and secret service officers carried out 600 simultaneous searches in all parts of the country, the Ukrainian police leadership in Kyiv said on Telegram.
The aim of the operation is to close “channels for smuggling men of military age abroad”.
The departure of hundreds of thousands of men out of the country has been a major problem for the government as it seeks new military recruits to ward off the Russian invasion, which began nearly three years ago.
Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are only allowed to leave Ukraine in exceptional cases. The army is currently drafting conscripts aged 25 and over.
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To avoid military service, many men try to buy their way out at the border, or cross the Carpathian Mountains to Romania on foot.
