Military Service Avoided -- Consular Service Denied

"We all felt like the ground was pulled out from under us. That Ukraine no longer wants to support us."

"It was done as a 'go to hell' move -- 'we will now catch you, to make you feel bad, punish you'."

"I am not afraid to die. My biggest fear is to be captured and experience torture."

Oleksandr, 42, from Kyiv, now in Australia

 

"There will be no restrictions or forced return of Ukrainian citizens of any gender or age to a country that is at war."

"There are no easy solutions to war issues, and let's not forget that the war is ongoing, and we have to win it." 

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna

"I feel like the country I love and cherish is behaving like an immature, offended teenager."

"I have always positioned myself, and will continue to position myself, as a Ukrainian in all situations."

"But if the state considers me a traitor, I must admit it's not a pleasant feeling for me at the moment."

Andriy, 38, now in Poland

"Some of this is about restoring some kind of balance. It's unfair that men in Ukraine have to live like this right now."

"There is a sense that we men who live outside the country have more privileges and liberties. But the situation is not black-and-white."

"There are also people still living in the country who pretend that there is no war right now, and people living outside who work every day to support Ukraine."

Savelii, 35, now in London 

"This hasn't caused me any inconvenience personally [his passport valid for another three years], although it's insulting because I haven't violated existing laws of Ukraine."

"But I don't exclude the possibility that services may be needed. What to do then, there's no plan."

Olexander, 53, now in Britain

A banner advertising contract military service is seen on display in central Kyiv in March. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

 

Ukraine had given orders to its embassies abroad that citizen services like passport renewals will be temporary suspended although they are regular consular services meant to service the needs of Ukrainian citizens living outside of Ukraine. This is a move motivated by a government desperate to shore up its faltering military campaign to stop Russian forces from their advance in Ukraine; a preliminary step involved with a new mobilization law to go into force May 18 that will require all men aged 18 to 60 to update personal information with a local draft office within 60 days.

Since Russia's invasion in February of 2022, martial law prohibits fighting-age men in Ukraine from leaving the country. Thousands of Ukrainians predating the Russian invasion already lived outside the country, others chose to leave in fear of conscription. The new rules just introduced apply to all of these citizens of Ukraine under pressure of the new rules. Ukrainians who speak in opposition to the new rules, withhold their full names in fear of possible repercussions.

The number of those living outside Ukraine are not known, but are assumed to be in the tens of thousands. Those who support the mobilization law feel that men who live outside Ukraine do not support their country sufficiently in its time of greatest need. Men living within Ukraine who provide their personal data to a draft office stand to receive documentation which they are expected to show in conducting official business in Ukraine; registering marriage, obtaining a driver's license, etc.

 

A local woman rides a bicycle on April 18, 2024, in front of a building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in the frontline town of Orikhiv, Ukraine. (Andriy Andriyenko / AP Photo)

 

To receive consular service, Ukrainians living abroad must provide their personal data without which they are not to be given the required documentation of their citizenship. The situation is creating a rift that deepens between men who have fought in t he front lines as opposed to those who have not, between families. the mobilization law, should it succeed, could provide hundreds of thousands of new soldiers for the war effort, desperately needed to halt the Russian advances.

According to a statement by Ukraine's ambassador to Warsaw, Vasyl Zvarych, Ukrainian authorities "estimate that there are tens of thousands of people of military age in Poland alone". The new measures have raised as many questions as answers, leaving many Ukrainian men struggling to fully comprehend what it might mean for them personally. Thousands of men who fled Ukraine to avoid the draft  now find themselves stuck wherever they ended up, forced to apply for asylum, left in legal limbo.

As for corroboration with Ukraine, by its European neighbours in Europe, authorities are divided over prospects of attempting to compel Ukrainian men to return home to fight. An adviser to Estonia's interior minister stated that Estonia has "no plan for the forced repatriation of Ukrainian citizens legally residing in Estonia who fled because of the war". Others appeared less categorical: "We definitely won't protect draft dodgers", Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna has stated.

A Ukrainian howitzer fires in the direction of Russian forces near Kupiansk, Ukraine, on April 21. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Stopping Russia ... Ukraine Doing Its Utmost

"The world has the strength to defend normal life [in this time of uncertainty as wars threaten humanity." "The world has this strength. And this strength must work now to stop Russia."

"I am grateful to everyone who helps. Grateful to everyone who defends Ukraine, who works for Ukraine, who remembers that the major challenge is to give our country every opportunity to drive out the occupiers."

"We will definitely do this."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

"An airplane-style drone was brought down by the defense ministry using radio-electronic means."

"When the aerial target was destroyed, its munitions were dropped on the territory of the Klintsy oil depot."

Bryansk regional Governor Alexander Bogomaz

In this photo taken from video released by Governor of Bryansk Region Alexander Bogomaz telegram channel AV BogomaZ on Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, Oil reservoirs are seen in fire after the drone reached Klintsy.

An oil storage depot was struck by Ukrainian drones in western Russia on Friday, the cause of a massive blaze. With the conflict's two-year anniversary on the horizon, Ukrainian forces continue to extend their attacks across the border on to Russian soil. Bringing to their neighbour what their neighbour has imposed on them with Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation', which has encouraged Ukraine to mount its very own special military operation, and hugely successfully.

When a Ukrainian drone reached Klintsy, a city of 70,000 inhabitants located some 60 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, four oil reservoirs with a total capacity of 6,000 cubic metres were set afire, the latest in an intensified effort of late by Ukraine to unnerve Russians just as Russian attacks have substantially reduced the quality of life of Ukrainians. These reaches into Russian territory will serve to rebut the Russian president's claims that life in Russia is commencing normally. A special bit of reassurance to the public with the approach of the March presidential election.

More targets are to be scheduled within the Russian border regions this year, promises Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Made all the more convenient that Russian air defences are concentrated in its occupied regions of Ukraine, leaving targets at a greater distance inside Russia vulnerable, while the development of longer-range drones are in progress for Ukrainian Forces.

Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border, had to cancel its traditional Orthodox Epiphany festivities Friday as a result of the threat hovering over the Russian city, of Ukrainian drone strikes; the first time any major public events are known to have been lifted in Russia in reflection of the threat of drones shot off from Ukraine into Russian territory. Quoting an official in Ukraine's Intelligence Service, Ukrainian national media reported that Ukrainian drones also attacked a gunpowder mill in Tambov, some 600 kilometres south of Moscow.

A Ukrainian drone, according to the Russian Defence Ministry, was shot down on the outskirts of St.Petersburg the day before -- with the drone wreckage falling on the premises of the St.Petersburg Oil Terminal on the southern edge of the city. The terminal co-owner confirmed that the drone had targeted the terminal in Russia's second-largest city, about 900 kilometres north of the Ukraine border.

 

Air defences electronically jammed the drone over Klintsy, but it dropped its explosive payload on the facility. No casualties were reported. Videos of the blaze at the depot appeared on Russian telegram channels, thick black plumes of smoke sent into the sky. This is the very depot that was struck last year by a Ukrainian drone.

 

Firefighters extinguish oil tanks at a storage facility that local authorities say caught fire after the military brought down a Ukrainian drone, in the town of Klintsy in the Bryansk Region, Russia January 19, 2024, in this still image taken from video. Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS