Some 11,000 Ukrainian men have illegally crossed the border into northern Romania to avoid being drafted since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Romanian border police said. After crossing, the men, aged 18-60, usually request protection from Romanian authorities, said Florin Coman, the border police chief in Sighetu Marmatiei, a northern city near Romania's border with Ukraine. Coman said 19 men have died trying to cross the border -- 11 drowned in the Tisa River separating the two countries, while the rest died while trying to cross the Carpathian Mountains into Romania without proper equipment. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service, click here.
Romania Says 11,000 Ukrainian Men Have Illegally Entered To Evade Draft
The Carpathian Mountains in northern Romania, near the border with Ukraine (file photo)