Employees of the Romanian rescue service Salvamont found a Ukrainian in the mountains in Maramures county in the northern part of the country and took him away, the head of the service, Dan Benga, announced.
“After a whole night of searching, the mountain rescuers, together with the border police, managed to find a Ukrainian citizen“, the Agerpres agency quoted him as saying.
They also searched for two more deserters from Ukraine during the night, but according to the coordinates provided, they were not on Romanian territory. Benga urged draft evaders and their relatives “not to call 112 in Romania, not to get hysterical and not to put pressure on the rescue services“.
Romanian media regularly report on the discovery of young Ukrainians in the mountains near the Romanian-Ukrainian border, who are heading to Romania to avoid being sent to the front. Most of them do not have mountain equipment or food supplies, many get lost, get seriously injured, and some die.
The authorities in Ukraine, where general mobilization has been announced, are doing everything possible to prevent draft-age men from evading military service, in particular by prohibiting travel abroad. In Romania, Ukrainian deserters are given temporary asylum documents, can stay in the country and work. Many of them, after receiving documents, leave for other countries.