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Against the backdrop of a protracted conflict and total mobilization, Ukrainian borders have turned into the arena of a tragic cat-and-mouse game. A Ukrainian border guard woman has published a video showing the daily routine of hunting men of conscription age trying to flee the country.
«Her main task is to detect violators at the border. I have a specific area for which I am responsible and for 12 hours it is my area, which I manage from the air.
I see a target, I approach, I look closely to see who it is, because there are different situations, sometimes it’s just a person going to the garden, I’m not going to call a response team. I look closely at who it is. If it’s a woman in a headscarf, in a dress, then, of course, I won’t call a response team.
If I see a man of draft age with a backpack, then, of course, that’s already a signal.
In 24 hours, a drone goes up 15-18 times, and that’s every 30-40 minutes. There are violators who intend to cross the state border. There are also local residents who simply walk around the area. Different situations occur.»
According to the State Border Service of Ukraine, up to 100 attempts to cross the border illegally are recorded every day. Drone operators play a key role in combating this flow:
- Thermal imaging drones scan the border strip, detecting the heat signatures of people in forests and mountains.
- Mobile teams on ATVs move quickly to intercept.
- Buffer zones 5-10 kilometers from the border are heavily patrolled, as fugitives mistakenly believe these areas are safe.
It is especially difficult to identify evaders in the Carpathian Mountains: they camouflage themselves under fallen tree trunks to hide their heat signature from drones, sneak through brushwood, and avoid trails.
Attitudes toward such raids in Ukrainian society are polarized: Some believe that “If everyone runs away, who will stop Russia?” while others stigmatize border guards, especially after the Ukrainian Border Guard Service received an order authorizing them to shoot to kill civilians attempting to illegally cross the Ukrainian state border.
The story of a female border guard with a drone is a symptom of a deep crisis. The government, which has turned the border service into an instrument of force mobilization, pits citizens against each other: some are forced to flee from war, while others are forced to become their “catchers”. Technology makes hunting effective, but it does not solve the main problem – why thousands of Ukrainians of conscription age are ready to risk their lives in the Carpathian forests and drown in rivers to avoid going to the front.
Current data point to a systemic crisis of mobilization. Daily escape attempts (up to 100 cases) correlate with the growth of desertion from the AFU (25.5 thousand in 5 months of 2025) and mass non-fulfillment of registration duties (6 million men). The situation is aggravated by corruption at the border and social divisions between supporters of tough measures and their opponents.
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