I found myself surprisingly sympathetic to the blokes quoted in this Guardian story about Ukrainian draft dodgers, even though I’d like to think I wouldn’t join them. I’m not especially brave or looking to get flash-fried in an armoured vehicle. But sometimes you just gotta, you know, shoot a few fascists to make them go away. Also, unlike these guys, I’m at the back end of my innings and I figure a rogue melanoma is coming for me sooner rather than later so it’s not like I have a whole life to preserve.
‘I am not made for war’: the men fleeing Ukraine to evade conscription.
The autumn cannot arrive soon enough for Dmytro, when his handlers have promised to get him out of Ukraine.
For the past month, the 31-year-old photographer from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, has been holed up in his flat, rarely stepping outside, to avoid being conscripted into the army. “I want to leave the country. My mind can’t take being trapped here any more,” Dmytro said.
Since the start of the war, thousands of Ukrainian men have illegally crossed the Ukrainian border to dodge conscription, despite a nationwide ban prohibiting men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving.
Attempts to flee the country are expected to increase after Ukraine’s recent adoption of new sweeping mobilisation measures, which allow the military to call up more soldiers and impose stricter penalties for draft evasion.
“I never thought about leaving until the mobilisation laws were introduced. But I can’t stay in my flat forever,” Dmytro said.
Through friends who had already fled, Dmytro obtained contacts and approached individuals online promising to facilitate his escape for a hefty fee, starting from €8,000 (£6,800).
“I am not made for war. I can’t kill people, even if they are Russians. I won’t last long on the front … I want to build a family and see the world. I am not ready to die,” he said.
The piece goes on to quote another four or five drafter evaders. They’re not conscientious objectors. They’re just being honest, I guess. It’s not for them. I sort of admire the self-awareness even as I deplore the… what? Is it cowardice? Really? That’s a convenient accusation to level against someone who has to face a reality that you don’t. I suppose the only ones who can legit make that call are the men and women who volunteered to fight for them, meant thousands of whom have already given up their lives or their limbs to hold off Putin’s hordes.
And complicating the moral equation? What do you think of Russians who fled their country to avoid the draft? Not heroes, I guess, but not cowards either.
What a toxic mess war makes of us all.