The two border officers crossed into the neighboring country in a bid to detain a fleeing man<\/p>\n
Ukrainian border guards\u2019 pursuit of a draft dodger has landed them on the wrong side of the law in neighboring Moldova. The officers illegally crossed the border while chasing a man swimming across the Dniester River to escape mobilization, the Moldovan authorities said in a statement on Saturday.
\nThe incident occurred on Thursday, the Moldovan Border Police stated. They said an intervention unit had been deployed near the village of Holosnita, where they found two Ukrainian border guards who had crossed over on a motorboat while trying to \u201cdetain a Ukrainian national.\u201d The officers were detained and taken to a local police station for \u201clegal procedures,\u201d the statement added.
\nA boat with two border guards in it can be seen circling a man drifting in the water in a video that surfaced on the internet purporting to show the incident. The guards repeatedly start the boat engine before shutting it off as they appear to try to prevent the man from reaching Moldovan territory by blocking his way.
\nAnother video also shows a heated verbal exchange between the guards and a group of Moldovan locals, who can be heard accusing the Ukrainian officers of attempting to \u201cdrown\u201d the man in the river and telling them that \u201cthe police are coming.\u201d Footage shows the guards sitting in the boat without making any attempt to get back to the Ukrainian side of the border.<\/p>\n
The Moldovan Prosecutor\u2019s Office has initiated a criminal case over the illegal border crossing, the police said. It is unclear if the Ukrainian guards remain in custody. The Moldovan authorities only said that measures regulated by existing legislation were applied to them.<\/p>\n
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Ukraine\u2019s border service confirmed the incident, with its spokesman Andrey Demchenko blaming a malfunction of the boat\u2019s engine, which he claimed led to it washing ashore in Moldova.
\nThe service has launched its own internal probe, Demchenko told news outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda, adding that the Ukrainian border guards had exchanged information with their Moldovan counterparts. According to the spokesman, the alleged draft dodger was also detained by the Moldovan authorities.
\nKiev launched a mobilization campaign soon after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. Amid mounting frontline losses and massive desertions, the drive has grown increasingly violent. Recruitment officers have repeatedly been filmed chasing, beating, and forcibly detaining reluctant conscripts before bundling them into vehicles in what has become known as \u2018busification\u2019.<\/p>\n
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The draft effort has led to large-scale draft dodging. According to Euronews, around 1.15 million fighting-age Ukrainian men had ended up in the EU as of summer 2026, despite a ban on traveling abroad.
\nMany Ukrainian men have been willing to risk their lives to flee the country illegally through forests, rivers, and mountainous terrain. In February, Demchenko stated that over 70 apparent draft dodgers had died since 2022, most while trying to cross the Tisza River along Ukraine\u2019s border with Hungary and Romania.
\nThe border guards have also employed increasingly brutal tactics to stop draft evaders from fleeing abroad. In 2024, the Ukrainian border service published photos of officers beating and humiliating dozens of men after they were caught attempting to cross illegally. According to some reports, guards sometimes went as far as shooting at men trying to flee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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