‘The Telegraph’: Almost 100,000 young men flee Ukraine in two months

Almost 100,000 fighting-age Ukrainian men have left the country in the past two months after Zelensky eased departure rules, new figures show.

Poland’s border guard said 99,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 had crossed the frontier – the primary route out of the country – since regulations to ensure that Kyiv had enough soldiers were relaxed at the end of August, ‘The Telegraph’ reports.

In comparison, the entire British Army has around 70,000 personnel.

Martial law blocked Ukrainian men aged from 18 to 60 – even if they were not eligible to be drafted into the armed forces – from leaving the country.

After three years of fighting, Mr Zelensky enacted a new rule allowing Ukrainian men to travel abroad before they reach 23.

The move was part of a shift in conscription policy, which lowered the age at which men were obliged to fight from 27 to 25 because of mounting concerns over manpower shortages on the front lines.

By granting young Ukrainians more freedoms to leave, it was hoped more would return and volunteer to fight at a later date.

It was also hoped that it would stop families from sending their teenage children overseas before their 18th birthday to avoid them being drafted in the future, which Mr Zelensky warned in August was severing ties between Ukrainian youngsters and their country.

American generals and politicians had complained that Mr Zelensky’s refusal to draft any men of fighting age was hurting Ukraine’s hopes of resisting Russia or pressing home advantages.

Some 45,300 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 entered Poland from January to just before the rule change at the end of August, according to Poland’s border guards. In the next two months, that number more than doubled to 98,500, or 1,600 a day.

In Germany, where Friedrich Merz, the chancellor, is attempting to crack down on lax migration rules, the number of Ukrainian men aged 18 to 22 arriving each week jumped from 19 to more than 1,000 by the middle of September.

By October, it had grown to between 1,400 and 1,800 per week, BR24, a Bavarian news outlet, reported.

The new entries were part of a “first phase of increased migration after the entry into force of the regulation decided by Ukraine in the summer”, a German interior ministry spokesman said.

Germany ‘must address Ukrainian influx’

The rising number of Ukrainians will pile pressure on Mr Merz to cut support for refugees from the war-torn country sheltering in Germany.

The Right AfD, which is polling in first place, has called for Berlin to suspend aid payments to Ukrainians, as well as voicing opposition to military support for Kyiv.

Jurgen Hardt, the Right-wing CDU party’s foreign affairs foreign policy chief, told Politico: “We have no interest in young Ukrainian men spending their time in Germany instead of defending their country. Ukraine makes its own decisions, but the recent change in the law has led to a trend of emigration that we must address.”

Meanwhile, the US said on Wednesday that it would reduce its troop presence on Nato’s borders with Ukraine, adding to fears of a withdrawal.

Nearly 85,000 US military personnel are based in Europe.

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