Ukrainian border guards have installed anti-personnel mines on the Tisa River banks since April to prevent draft dodgers from leaving the country, according to a Sputnik source familiar with the matter. The source noted that the guards were ordered to stop draft dodgers "by any means possible."
"It was only in April that they started mining - and the first 'catch' has already emerged. The order was to stop the flight of people by any means, even in this way," the source told Sputnik.
The Tisa River separates Ukraine from Hungary and Romania and those who seek to evade mobilization and flee to Europe regularly try to cross it. Over 6,000 Ukrainian military-aged men have swum across the river to Romania since February 2022, the New York Times reported in April, citing Romanian authorities.
However, not everyone reaches the opposite shore. Those crossing the river regularly fall victim to the cold water, poor-quality wetsuits, and obstacles which they can't see while swimming at night. Smugglers take several thousand euros from Ukrainians fleeing mobilization for giving instructions on how to cross the river, as per local newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukrainian border guards have recovered the bodies of 32 people from the Tisa since the president ordered total mobilization in February 2022, as per RBK Ukraine.
"A person’s physical capabilities do not guarantee success in crossing the Tisa River. Because it is deep, there is a fast current, there are rhizomes [marine web-like plants] that can catch on the clothes [of the swimmer]," border service inspector Vladimir Shikur told the newspaper. He explained that defectors get convulsions in the icy water and even a well-trained person is not able to swim in the right direction or even get out of the river on their own.
Ten Ukrainians drowned in the Tisa River in May only, according to the Western Regional Directorate of the State Border Service. It's impossible to say how many Ukrainians have actually drowned.
The Kiev regime's latest draconian mobilization law that came into force on May 18 appears to have become a catalyst for smuggling attempts. The legislation not only lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 but also obligated Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 to carry a military ID wherever they go. There are numerous reports alleging that men younger than 25 have been grabbed and sent to the front by Ukrainian recruiters as the nation's military, which is currently on retreat, suffers from a severe soldier shortage.
The price to smuggle draft evaders abroad has also recently skyrocketed from $5,000 to $20,000, according to Andrei Rubel, the head of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police of Ukraine. Ukrainians continue to make efforts to leave the country despite the threat of detention or death on their way out of the country.