Shots fired at Hungarian-Ukrainian border: people fleeing military service arrested

Ukrainian border guards stopped 12 border crossers with warning shots on Tuesday at the Ukrainian-Hungarian green border. The all-male group turned out to be trying to escape to Hungary in order to avoid conscription.

As reported by Kárpáti Igaz Szó, according to a report from the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service on Wednesday, the staff of the Astei branch of the Mukachevo Border Guard Fetachment on Tuesday spotted a group of 12 people on foot heading towards Hungary.

The members of the group – all of them men of military age – did not stop even when the border guards called them to do so. The border guards were only able to force them to stop by firing several shots into the air.

The preliminary investigation revealed that the detained persons are residents of Transcarpathia. The Border Patrol forwarded the case to the police, who initiated proceedings for illegal border crossing and disobeying the authorities. The border guards also managed to identify and arrest the man who had transported the Transcarpathian men to the green border for 12,000 hryvnias (approximately EUR 290) each.

According to Telex, the search for ways out of military conscription in Ukraine has reached serious proportions. In August, a network of doctors was uncovered, offering bribes of between USD 3,000 and USD 15,000 to provide exemption certificates, allowing thousands of Ukrainians to escape conscription abroad.

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