The Ukrainian men fleeing the draft: ‘Not everyone is a warrior’ - BBC World Service Documentaries

Since Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has banned men of fighting age from leaving the country unless they have a valid exemption. Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 A #BBCEyeInvestigation found that nearly 20,000 men have fled the country illegally since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted. A further 21,000 have tried to leave but were caught by the Ukrainian authorities. Many got out by crossing the border illegally, others paid substantial bribes to buy a medical exemption. BBC Eye hears from the men who made it out hoping to be reunited with their families now living abroad. 00:00 Intro 1:27 We speak to Ukraine’s Border Service in Tyachiv 4:06 Numbers are even higher at the Moldovan border 5:15 Yevgeny from Kyiv tells us why he wanted to leave 6:41 How do men like Yevgeny attempt to cross the border? 8:10 What’s a ‘White Ticket’? Why is it pricey? We go undercover to find out 11:13 Government response to military recruitment corruption 11:53 Meet Erik - he couldn’t get an exemption despite disability 14:46 How crossing the border across the Tysa River can be dangerous 16:59 Yevgeny’s journey 18:53 Erik reunites with his family 20:23 ‘Is it worth persecuting those who have left?’, we ask Fedir Venislavskyi, a senior politician from the ruling party To watch more investigative journalism from our award-winning BBC teams check out this documentary playlist, perfect for the biggest screen in your home: Thanks for watching and subscribing. ---------------- This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel. If you like what we do, you can also find us here: Instagram 👉🏽 Twitter 👉🏽 Facebook 👉🏽 BBC World Service website 👉🏽 #BBCWorldService #BBCEye #BBCEyeDocumentaries #DraftDodgers