Detentions at the Border with Belarus Increased by 350 Times: How the Escape Scheme Works.

According to ТСН: Crossing the border with Belarus is becoming increasingly popular among Ukrainians trying to avoid mobilization.

According to data from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, in 2025, border guards detained:

• 1424 men of conscription age;

• 326 individuals in 2024;

• and only 4 in 2023.

The Belarusian direction made it to the top five countries with the highest number of detained conscripts, surpassing even Poland. The most detentions were recorded from:

• Romania (10,066 individuals);

• Moldova (4,937);

• Slovakia (2,265);

• Hungary (1,841);

• Belarus (1424);

• Poland (511);

• Russia (1 person in 2025).

According to data from the Polish border service, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion up to December 1, 2025, more than 80,000 Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 have arrived from Belarus to Poland. It is unknown how many of them crossed the Ukrainian-Belarusian border illegally.

How the Scheme Works

Journalists spoke with a man who offers assistance in crossing the border with Belarus in specialized groups on Telegram, and later with the EU. For smuggling two men, he asked for 16,000 US dollars.

"The fixer" offered to buy a verified escape route from Ukraine or to pay for a "turnkey" service: to order a car with an experienced driver who would bypass checkpoints in Ukraine and bring them to the border when "their shift" of border guards would be on duty on the Belarusian side.

He assured that you would be picked up from Kyiv or any point — right from home. Payment is made only when you are already sitting in the car. After that, they drop the men off 10–30 kilometers from the border, where they are met by KGB representatives in Belarus, who ask about military equipment and other objects.

"They ask you to give up positions," one of the escapees recounts.

"I was asked about the movement of military equipment. Where it was shelled, where it wasn't," recalls another evader.

"There was Russian 'special services' there. We were 'received' by special forces. My partner and I were tied up, wrapped in tape, and shoved into the back seat," notes another.

A representative of the Belarusian opposition organization BELPOL, Volodymyr Zhihar, added that Ukrainians who enter Belarus are seriously interrogated.

"These people are put under control, and then they are indeed taken to the border with the EU. Because their main goal is achieved — gathering information," he noted.

There have also been reports of schemes for smuggling evaders to Transnistria and the cost of the "ticket."

This situation indicates the growing risks for men of conscription age in Ukraine who have no opportunity to leave the country legally. The relevance of such schemes, as statistics of detentions show, is increasing, raising concerns among the state structures of Ukraine and neighboring countries. It is now crucial to monitor the development of the situation at the border and the reaction of Ukrainian border guards to such cases.