Maramures, Romania
—
Victor Pinkhasov can’t stop smiling. He just managed to escape from Ukraine after spending five days hiking alone in the Carpathians.
“I want to go and be free and live,” the 34-year-old incredulously told CNN after arriving in neighboring Romania. He is one of dozens of people who enter the country illegally from western Ukraine every week.
Ukraine, which has resisted full-scale Russian aggression for nearly four years, faces a growing personnel crisis. Kiev’s military is trying to maintain a front line of more than 600 miles against Russian forces in a relentless war of attrition.
CNN spoke to six draft evaders who don’t want to risk dying in an endless conflict, despite attempts by the Trump administration and foreign powers to negotiate. Russia, on the other hand, can mobilize a population more than three times that of Ukraine to meet its own military force, despite rising casualties.
According to the media outlet Ukraiska Pravda, as of September, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office had investigated approximately 290,000 criminal cases for soldiers not taking leave or deserting. Martial law prohibits all men between the ages of 23 and 60 who are eligible for military service from leaving the country.
For Pinkhasov, who worked as a taxi driver in Kiev, life back home became unbearable even as US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders promote competing visions to end the war.
“Nobody wants peace, not Putin, not Zelensky, not Trump,” he says bluntly over tea in the Romanian border town of Sighetu Marmatiei. The air is thick with smoke from the wood stove as we battle the cold.
He said he spent about a month preparing for the crossing, endlessly watching navigation apps and Telegram channels where people talked about their experiences and shared tips. Pinkasov also stocked up on dozens of energy bars and used survival gear. On his last day, he dumped everything in the mountains to sprint across the border and avoid being caught by Ukrainian border guards.
Once on the other side, a jubilant Pinhasov joined more than 30,000 Ukrainian men who have entered Romania illegally since the start of the conflict in 2022, according to the country’s border police. They have all been granted Temporary Protected Status, a European Union measure given to people fleeing war.
Ukraine’s state border guard service said more than 25,000 people were caught on their way out of the country. That’s only in Romania. Many more have fled to countries such as Moldova, Hungary and Belarus.
Not everyone makes it through unscathed. At least 29 people have drowned while trying to cross treacherous mountains in the Tisza River, which separates northern Romania from parts of southwestern Ukraine.
Dima, who asked to use a pseudonym out of privacy concerns, lost all of his toes to frostbite after spending five days wandering the slopes in sub-zero temperatures. “I was shocked when I looked at my feet,” the 42-year-old construction worker told CNN. “It hurts every day. It hurts every minute, every second.”
The father of two left Ukraine after being served with his draft papers early in the war. He says he paid smugglers to help him escape in April 2022, but they failed to warn him of the deadly danger ahead. “When we were on the top of the mountain, there was a big blizzard and snow. Once we were one meter apart, we couldn’t see each other,” Dima recalled.
One of the men I was traveling with froze to death. The weather was so bad that the bodies could not be recovered for several weeks. Dima was convinced that he too would die. However, Romania’s Salvamont Maramures Rescue Team managed to airlift him from the mountain in the nick of time.
Dan Benga is in charge of those rescue missions. Since 2017, the former rugby player turned businessman has dedicated his life to rescuing people lost in Europe’s second-longest mountain range.
In collaboration with other state agencies, his team arrested 377 Ukrainian men within four years.
Benga said many of the men were not equipped with the necessary equipment to navigate such steep canyons and knee-deep snow, putting them at risk of dying from injury or exhaustion.
“They would rather die in the mountains trying to escape than die in war,” Benga told CNN. He refuses to judge them. “The truth is we don’t know what’s going on in their hearts and souls. … Our work is full of empathy for humanity.”
It’s a dangerous job, and one Christmas Eve, the 57-year-old almost lost his life. He was stranded on a mountain for five days during a snowstorm in 2022 and was declared missing by authorities. His wife and three children were told to prepare for the worst.
But Benga pressed on. He said he carried the Ukrainian man on his back for 14 hours until rescuers finally arrived. Mr Benga said he became visibly emotional that day, citing the dangers of his job and the strain on his family.
One Ukrainian man, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns, told CNN that being rescued was an “indescribable feeling.”
“I got goosebumps all over my body. Waiting for rescuers was like waiting for a miracle,” he added.
For those with money to spare, paying a smuggler may be appealing. Some openly promote their services on social media. Artem, who has more than 4,000 followers on TikTok, claims he can help you get into Romania for $14,000.
“We’re rescuing people who just want to live to build a future,” he said in an interview with CNN. “I help people, I save people,” he says, likening this to lifesaving services.
Artyom said the key to success was bribing Ukrainian authorities, including border guards, to turn a blind eye. When fugitives arrive outside the country, his team guides them remotely and online.
“We just transport people directly to the border and then have them walk 300-400 meters and they are already in Romania,” he said.
A CNN journalist posed on Telegram as a Ukrainian man seeking information about the smuggling process and directly discussed costs and logistics with two others who claimed they could facilitate the escape. They also mentioned bribing security guards.
One smuggler told CNN that members of the smuggling ring would take him “straight to the concertina wire on a motorbike.” “Quickly cross the bellows. Travel to a depth of 100 meters in Romania and once you reach a safe location, transfer your payment to your cryptocurrency wallet.”
Ukraine’s State Border Service told CNN it has a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. “Our internal security services work actively to detect any incidents of illegal activity and always publicize the detention of employees when such incidents occur,” said spokesperson Andriy Demchenko.
“Those found to have committed such crimes will be held accountable according to existing law,” he said, adding that “claims by illegal groups that violate the law must be supported by evidence, otherwise they may amount to mere defamation.”
Some men who were caught attempting to leave the country illegally reported being mobilized shortly thereafter. The decision to avoid the front lines is widely seen as shameful in Ukraine, which has fought a defensive war against its much larger and nuclear-armed neighbor.
For Pinhasov, a taxi driver who crossed alone earlier this month, it was all worth it. He was later reunited with his 5-month-old daughter in Switzerland.
