‘Deceptively close’

Fearing mobilization, some Ukrainians are risking a treacherous swim to Romania. Scammers are cashing in.

Fearing they’ll be drafted and sent to the front, thousands of Ukrainian men have fled across the Tysa River into Romania. Smugglers exploit their desperation, often charging thousands of dollars to ferry people across before offering just a life jacket or a flimsy rubber boat at the river’s edge. At least 22 people have already lost their lives attempting to swim across the Tysa since the beginning of the full-scale war. While border guards try to rescue drowning men from the river’s current, getting to them can prove an impossible task. Journalists from the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda traveled to the river border for a firsthand look at the situation. Meduza shares a summary of their findings.

Dangerous waters

On the northern bank of the Tysa River, in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, lies a small settlement called Velykyi Bychkiv. The Romanian bank on the other side of the river appears “deceptively close,” writes Ukrainska Pravda. Ukrainian border guards from the Mukachevo Border Guard Detachment say they catch people trying to flee the country almost every day. Some venture into the river without even knowing how to swim.

According to the Romanian authorities, over 6,000 people have crossed the Tysa since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Not all have survived; since the beginning of the war, at least 22 people have lost their lives while trying to get across the river.

People die from the cold water that seeps in through poor-quality wetsuits or because they attempt to swim the river at night. The problem is made worse by so-called “guides” who promise them it will be “an easy stroll” across. Over the past two years, people have attempted to cross the river border on rubber boats, mattresses, and inflatable rafts. Many wear life jackets or wrap themselves in plastic wrap to try to keep from freezing.

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“Helping” people evade mobilization has become a profitable business in Ukraine, notes Ukrainska Pravda. Smugglers take money from desperate people, promising to help them get across the river and into Romania, where they’ll be free from the threat of conscription. But the person who’s supposed to help takes the money up front and has no accountability if things fail.

According to Ukrainska Pravda, scammers often claim to have made arrangements with border guards to let the men pass. Then, when the men arrive, they’re told that things fell through. The smuggler offers a flimsy boat or a life jacket and suggests the men take their chances (unless they want to wait for the next opportunity, and who knows how long that will be). Many men decide to try to get across the river, telling themselves it’s better to risk it than to end up in prison — especially since they know they’re not getting their money back.

Oleh Seleznev, the head of the border inspection department in Velykyi Bychkiv, said one man tried to cross the river despite having papers exempting him from military service. (The man is a caregiver for someone with a disability.) According to the border guards, smugglers managed to convince the man that he’d be mobilized regardless and persuaded him to flee. The guards charged him with trying to cross the border illegally. Later, he was able to leave the country legally.

Just two and a half years ago, the biggest problem along the border was drones flying between villages, delivering contraband goods (primarily tobacco products) from one bank of the Tysa to the other. Now that border surveillance has been tightened, it’s become more profitable to smuggle people than goods, which is why former contrabandists have also turned to this business. According to Seleznev, these “ferrymen” charge thousands of dollars for their services.

Keeping watch

Border guards told Ukrainska Pravda that they’ve sometimes had to rescue people who were attempting to flee. In early April, a border patrol spotted a young man near the riverbank at night. The man jumped into the river after hearing the guards, but soon he was swept away by the current and started shouting for help. The guards launched a drone with a thermal camera to keep track of him. Eventually, a cadet who was undergoing training with the Mukachevo detachment jumped into the river and managed to catch him and pull him ashore.

About 400 yards away, the drone operator spotted another person. When the guards got there, they saw a man in the water, clinging to tree roots and struggling against the current. They shouted, “Hold on, buddy, hold on!” as they tried to reach him through thickets and the barbed wire installed at the border, writes Ukrainska Pravda. Eventually, though, he let go, and they couldn’t find him afterward.

Border guards monitor the area through binoculars from an observation post on a hill overlooking the river. At night, they use thermal imagers. If they notice a car stopping nearby or someone preparing to flee, they alert colleagues closer by. During the day, they stop and check suspicious vehicles. The guards who spoke to Ukrainska Pravda mentioned that in the week leading up to the interview, there were three separate occasions when they apprehended men at checkpoints who were planning to swim across the Tysa.

“People use various ruses, hoping their story will be believed at the checkpoint,” Seleznev says. “Sometimes they bring military IDs. Sometimes they might even take a soldier with them. Sometimes they travel with their families, with the wife driving. And they’ll say something like: ‘I'm going on vacation,’ or ‘I’m just passing through,’ or ‘I’m going to get medical treatment.’”

In 2023, the Mukachevo detachment, which is responsible for patrolling nearly 200 miles of the border (including 75 miles along the Tysa), arrested members of 56 different groups involved in organizing illegal border crossings. The suspects have been charged with illegally transporting people across the state border. Men attempting to evade conscription by fleeing across the river into Romania face misdemeanor charges, and their information is forwarded to Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), the police, and the local military enlistment office. Whether or not the person attempting to flee is issued a summons is up to the enlistment office, not the border service.