Quote:
Originally Posted by curves2000
A few friends of mine who have sponsored or housed Ukrainian refugee's here in Calgary were telling me how a few of the families are now going to be reunified here slowly. Several of the men have been approved with papers to come to Canada, which sounds great and is excellent. I feel for everybody involved in this terrible war!
When I asked how on earth they could technically be leaving Ukraine as the males are not allowed to leave so that they can fight, it was made very clear that with as little as $5k, you can get across the boarder to Poland and than your good to go.
Now I am wondering how many families who have left Ukraine to parts of Europe and North America, are now sending money in order to have their males be unified with the family.
If this continues in greater numbers, will this have a greater affect on the war? Technically Russia has a lot of available men and manpower but if Ukraine is losing a lot of military aged or physically capable men, how does this affect the war?
Obv corruption and human smuggling, trafficking's and other said offenses occur all over the world, the way this was being said that it's an open scenario. Pay $5k and get on outta of this hell hole.
Who knows what happens and I really wish for everybody involved all the best but I gotta say, I was surprised at the level of this and was thinking about the longer range for Ukraine as a whole.
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My insight into this is that it depends on the Ukrainian region you are in. On the Western side by the EU borders, it would be much harder to leave. As you mentioned, UA law prohibits men of fighting age from leaving. There are a few relaxed rules recently that DO allow for leaving. For example, previously males could only leave if they had at least 5 children. Now the rule is only 3. Certain medical procedures that take place in the EU are exempted and those males are allowed to leave. As well, $5k is a lot in Ukraine, so I am not surprised special "exemptions" are allowed if you have the cash on hand.
But the eastern border with Russia is a different beast. Much of the border is controlled by Russia, so at those crossings you are dealing only with Russian border guards. There are no UA border guards in those regions, for obvious reasons. Ukrainians, at least when my in-laws crossed, were allowed to enter Russia "freely" if they so chose. What made it tricky is that it was completely dependent on the commanding officer in charge of the occupied region. On a good day, evacuation buses were sent. On a bad day (and their are many), Ukrainians were used as human shields or worse and forced to stay.
However another big stipulation (at least at the Kozacha Lopan crossing north of Kharkiv city, I can't speak to the ones in Donbas) was that if you had proof of family residing in Russia, you could enter freely. If you were simply a refugee on your own trying to enter, you were required to give up your mobile phone and were placed on a bus that headed to god knows where inside Russia.
So when my in-laws escaped, they were allowed to enter freely since they have family in Belgorod already. This allowed to them to enter, than make their way up north to the border crossing with Latvia. We have 2 refugees from Kherson staying with us at my place, and they left in similar fashion. Entered Russia freely since they both have family in Moscow. Took some buses organized by some good kind hearted Russian volunteers, than headed up north to the Latvia crossing.
My wife does have a few friends who entered Russia on their own and were forced to take one of these buses that headed to the interior of Russia. Sadly, my wife has not heard from them since. Their online statuses have not been updated or geolocated since they day they entered. She has no idea where they are or she will ever hear from them again.
As for the effect this will have on the number of soldiers fighting for Ukraine and if it will affect them, my opinion is that those numbers will be negligible. There are a lot of men who have since returned to fight, along with the many who stayed. Even with the ongoing brutality shown by the Russians, patriotism is at an all-time high. Hell, my FIL who made it to Poland recently wants to return back and fight, even after his hellish ordeal under occupation. Simply, Ukraine has no shortage of men willing to fight for their freedom and I don't imagine it's a big issue.