Ukrainian draft dodgers in Poland could soon be rounded up and sent back home, Polish authorities announced.
The move comes as Kyiv desperately seeks to boost the number of its frontline troops ahead of an expected major Russian summer offensive that could begin as early as May.
Around 152,000 Ukrainian men of military age are believed to have fled to Poland, after Putin’s invasion in February 2022.
Poland’s government is now considering a possible crackdown on Ukrainian men sheltering in the country.
Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said late Wednesday that Warsaw could help round up eligible conscripts and send them back to Ukraine.
“We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to compulsive military service go to Ukraine,” he told Polsat television.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky publicly stated in February this year that 31,000 soldiers had been killed in the conflict so far.
Kyiv’s army faces an uphill struggle to withstand and repel the Russian invaders, who enjoy a significant numerical advantage in both weapons and troops.
Military sources have indicated that in some places on the frontlines, Ukraine’s army is outgunned ten to one and outnumbered seven to one.
Zelensky recently lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 in an attempt to secure more fighting power.
His government also said on Wednesday it would stop issuing new passports abroad to some military-aged men.
As a result, men aged between 18 and 59 living outside the country will be unable to renew expiring passports or obtain new ones when the law comes into effect in May.
Many Ukrainians who volunteered at the beginning of the war have found themselves having to fight almost all the time, with only two weeks leave granted per year.
Conscript eligible men are taking extraordinary risks to escape the clutches of military recruitment staff.
More than 6,000 have turned up in Romania, having swum across the Tysa River that forms the border between the two countries.
Yet not all make it across alive, with some 22 reported drowned by Romania’s border guards.
Many more are believed to have perished, but whose bodies have never been discovered.
