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Basically, my story started when I was picked up by the TCC in '25 and taken to the local, well, the draft office. I sat there until evening, tried to escape, but saw that it was just impossible at that moment. Sergeants
A personal story of draft evasion from Ukraine, detailing escape attempts, military service, and a risky journey to Romania.
Key Takeaways
- Draft evasion involves significant risks, including capture and psychological stress.
- Careful planning, physical preparation, and local knowledge are critical for successful escape.
- Trust and support from others can be vital, but partners may face personal challenges.
- Border crossings on foot through difficult terrain require resilience and adaptability.
- Faith and mental strength play important roles in enduring the hardships of escape.
What the video covers
- The narrator was drafted in 2025 and initially tried to escape but was caught and returned to service.
- He earned the trust of his commander while serving as a driver-mechanic but planned a serious escape.
- After renting an apartment and preparing financially, he successfully escaped the military unit.
- He spent a year in hiding, developing paranoia and studying escape routes to Romania.
- The narrator found a partner and prepared physically and mentally for the journey through the mountains.
- They traveled by train to a quiet starting point and began their trek with careful planning.
- The journey involved harsh conditions, including snow, wet gear, and dangerous mountain sections.
- They crossed the border into Romania on foot and faced challenges with border control and stamps.
- The narrator reflects on the psychological toll and the importance of faith and perseverance.
- The video provides insight into the difficulties faced by Ukrainian draft evaders and their escape strategies.
Chapters
- 00:00Initial Draft and First Escape Attempt
- 03:18Serving and Gaining Trust in the Military
- 06:29Planning and Preparing for Escape
- 10:06Journey Begins: Train and Starting Point
- 13:36Challenges in the Mountains and Harsh Conditions
- 16:53Crossing the Border into Romania
- 22:06Reflections on the Journey and Psychological Impact
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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from a unit arrived at the TCC—I won't say which unit—and suggested I join them. I agreed because it was from my own region. I figured it all out, thinking it would be easier for me to escape from there later on. So I agreed.
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That evening, they picked me up and drove me to the military unit. There were five other draft dodgers with me, just like me. They brought us to the unit, processed our IDs, registered us, and assigned our positions. My position
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was driver-mechanic. After that, they took us to a field where they showed us the positions and the dugouts. They fed us. And that same evening, I was ready to bolt, head home, make a run for it, and get out of there. It gets to 11:00
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PM, I charge my phone and my power bank. I tell the guys, "I'm going to the bathroom." I head out, go to the bathroom, and see it's already dark, nobody's around, some are resting, some are eating in the kitchen. So, I decide
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to make a run for it. I run across a field, immediately fall into a ditch, and go down. I can't see a thing. I manage to scramble out and keep running. After the field, I run into a
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residential area, pass through it, and then it's another field. Anyway, that's how I made it home through the fields.
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Around 5:00 AM, on foot. I stayed home for a day, didn't go anywhere. My big mistake was going home to my registered address and not even turning off my phone or changing the SIM card. I didn't know any better. After a day, I
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relaxed, thinking they didn't need me anymore. I left the house to head out and take care of my business. And right there in the yard, they were already waiting for me. A chase started; I ran as hard as I could until the very end.
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One of them, a sergeant from that unit, was there. He was the only one who managed to catch up to me. The others were far behind. They didn't manage to pull it off. Well, basically, while I was running, I just lost all my
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strength. Plus the adrenaline and the fear. They caught up with me. People from the yard came out—pensioners, some men, and girls started defending me, trying to save me. They called the cops, the cops arrived, approached me and said: "Hey, you're coming with us
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to file a report that you were kidnapped." Well, I understood that this was a complete lie. That wasn't going to happen. I get in with them, we drive off, and on the way I notice we're heading nowhere near the police
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station, but in the complete opposite direction. I ask them: "Where are we going?" They stay silent, they don't answer me at all. In the end, they take me back to the military enlistment office. I don't know why. I just sat
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there for about half an hour, they wrote down some stuff from my documents. After that, the sergeants took me back to the unit, gave me a lecture, took me to a psychologist; they didn't hit me, nothing happened. And after
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that, I decided to go with a different plan, a more serious one. I started saying that that's it, I'm ready to serve, I like everything. I stayed to serve, started earning the commander's trust. I earned his trust so much that
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he even trusted me with his personal car sometimes to run errands. But getting time off was a real struggle.
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Nobody was being given any time off at all. Even the veterans, those who had been serving for a long time, nobody was getting time off. And I served for a month and a half. I waited for my first paycheck, plus from our mayor—I
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won't say which one—by law, those mobilized since the 24th were entitled to a 20,000 payment. I applied for those payments, also got the extra 20,000 on top of my salary, and prepared for my escape. I rented an apartment in advance, my girlfriend
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helped me do it. I transferred the money to her, she went to check out the apartment and rented it. After that, I begged for a day off. They actually gave it to me. At night, I quietly loaded all my stuff into the car so no
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one would see. It was actually very difficult to do without being noticed, because I wasn't alone there. Well, anyway, in the morning I handed over my shift, my time off started, I got in the car and drove off fast; I still had
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to sell my car that day. And everything worked out perfectly, I sold the car to an acquaintance. I arrived in town, we quickly transferred the car title at the notary's office. I had agreed with this acquaintance that the car would
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stay with me until evening so I could run my errands. Thank God he allowed me to do that. Anyway, I quickly went to buy a new phone and a new SIM card, and moved my personal belongings from one
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apartment to another. And it just so happened that it was my grandmother's birthday, so I also had to manage to go and congratulate her. And that's how I scrambled around the whole day. In the evening I turned in the car, that’s
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it, I was free. We managed to play pool, but that’s it. Not the time for that now. And that was it. I moved into a new apartment and sat there for a year like that. I didn't go anywhere. I
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was scared, I developed some kind of unnecessary paranoia. Even though I’m not a paranoid person by nature, and I was never afraid of anything, but that AWOL situation really took its toll. I just didn't want to get caught again.
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And while I was stuck in the apartment for a year, I started to deeply, well, globally study the Romania route. I studied and studied, wrote to many people, talked to them, but, so to speak, I didn't have a partner. Uh, and
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at first, one of my friends gave me the contact info of his friend and said: "Message him, he seems to be ready to go with you." I wrote to him; the guy turned out to be, well, very nice. We
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still keep in touch, but he isn't my partner. It didn't work out due to his personal circumstances. He stayed in Ukraine. And when he told me that he most likely wouldn't be going on the trip, I got upset because, well, I had
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a huge motivation to leave this concentration camp. I couldn't continue living like that anymore, not working, not being able to go out properly, absolutely nothing. I continued searching for a partner. I found a partner from my own city. We agreed to
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meet in person. We met at a restaurant, grabbed a bite, had some coffee, and talked. He wanted to go through Transnistria. I talked him out of it, because I have some different information about Transnistria. I persuaded him otherwise and explained
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why I wanted to go specifically to Romania, why through the mountains, I laid out all my arguments, and he agreed with me. After that, we had a month and a half of preparation left before our departure. I went straight
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to the gym. I understood, yes, that a month and a half isn't much time to prepare, but because I’ve been involved in sports my whole life and only had a one-year break, I knew that with intense physical training, I’d
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be able to recover at least somewhat. And that’s exactly what happened. I went to the gym every day for a month and a half, not missing a single day, spending three to four hours there. We bought the gear. And then the day
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finally came when we had to head to the train station in our city. We traveled by train to our starting point.
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Everything went, so to speak, the start went successfully. We arrived at the station by taxi and got out. Before that, my girlfriend had already been to the station to scout it out, and everything was clear there. We got in
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calmly and boarded the train without any issues. And just as calmly, we reached our starting point. I won't name the location, but let's just say it's a relatively quiet place you can get to. Yeah. We happened to have a
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very nice train attendant. We asked her in advance about the TCK presence at the station. She said she hadn't seen them there in a long time and that there was nobody around. When we arrived, she got off first, walked
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along the platform to check, then came back.
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and walked, took a detour, and left the station area. We stopped at a restaurant to grab a bite before the hike, had some borscht and tea. It was still quite cold and there was a light drizzle. After the restaurant, we took
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a taxi to the Nova Poshta branch to pick up our backpacks. My backpack was extremely heavy. It weighed 30 kg at the start. My partner's was maybe around 20 or 22 kg at the start. Why was my backpack so heavy? I overpacked,
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and I took way too many canned goods, stewed meat, and sardines. I was very worried that we wouldn't have enough food on the hike. Because I had heard stories from people who said they ran out of food and had to walk for a day
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or two while hungry. That's what I was afraid of. Plus, I brought along extra warm clothing. All of that added up to the weight. We picked up our packs, got back in a taxi, and drove closer to the
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forest at the edge of town. So, what was the mistake? I believe it was my partner's decision. It was my partner's mistake. I didn't agree with him, but we went ahead anyway. We went straight into the forest immediately, even
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though the terrain allowed for other options. I knew we could have gone through the private residential area via the trails, which was a safe zone.
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I had studied it all, I knew it, and I wasn't afraid. But I decided to listen to my partner, you know, to give him some peace of mind. I thought, "Well, if he's worried, fine, I won't make a
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fuss, let's just go through the woods." And the first day was very tough, both physically and mentally. I realized that I hadn't prepared for the mountains the way you're supposed to.
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With 30 kg on my back, we started right into the forest. There were slopes, marshes, and it was raining from the very first day. Half a day had passed, and the clock was already hitting 5:00 PM. So we made the decision to set up
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our tent. The tent was an adventure in itself, because neither I nor my partner had ever set one up in our lives. We spent about an hour trying to get it up. And it was raining the whole time. Our morale was just plummeting.
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Somehow we finally managed to set it up after watching a YouTube video, and that was it, we crawled inside. It was pouring, we were completely exhausted and just totally shocked by everything.
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Both he and I immediately had the thought of just quitting and heading home the next day by train. But thank God, my girlfriend supported me really well. She didn't let me take a step backward. If not for her at that moment
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, I probably would have given up, because mentally it was very tough. Anyway, we somehow got through the night. It was still cold and raining, and by morning it had even snowed. So we packed up and started off. This was
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the beginning of the second day. And somehow, from the second day on, it became mentally easier. I don't know why. I was also praying. I am a very religious person myself. I believed that we would make it out safely and
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everything would be fine. Anyway, from the second day on, things became much easier mentally. And we kept going, even as it was covered in snow. Because of the snow, it was, so to speak, physically harder to walk, because in
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many places we had to climb to higher ground to get through it all. But by the middle of the second day, I persuaded my partner to head closer to private houses and follow the trails.
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That’s what we did, walking along the paths; people saw us, cars drove by, but everything was fine. No one bothered us or said anything to us.
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Well, they just greeted us, everyone was saying hello. And more or less until the end of the second day, we just walked through paths like that, past houses. The second day turned out to be easy, in a way. There was nothing
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particularly unusual. The third day arrived; it started snowing again at night, but we set up the tent quickly this time because we already knew how to do it. Body warmers saved us—those stick-on warmers that I think many people know about. Because without them
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, honestly, it would have been very cold. I had a huge sleeping bag. Anyone know that it's very big and heavy? Yeah , that also took up a lot of weight and space in the backpack. I wanted to save
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some money and not buy another sleeping bag, so I took the one I was issued in the UAF. But thank God, its one saving grace was that it was warm. It was very warm. If it weren't for that, I don't
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know, I probably would have frozen to death out there. And then the third day arrived. We would get up at about 5:00 a.m. At 5:30 in the morning, we had an hour to pack up the tent, have a quick
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snack, and head out. And on the third day, uh, on the third day we were approaching a river, I won't name it.
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It was actually the first river on our path. It wasn't small, it had a strong current and, well, a good depth. The river was somewhere above knee-deep.
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And as it turns out, I didn't know this area, I hadn't asked anything about it.
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I thought everything there was, like, clear. And so it happens that we are coming down from the forest to this river. There's the river and a road running along it. Well, it's a wide road, gravel. You can tell cars drive
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there. But I didn't think it through to the end and told my partner: "Listen, let's walk along the road, it'll be fine." We get out onto the road, and I notice a car coming in the distance. We quickly run back into the forest. We
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didn't run far because we immediately had to, well, we had to gain altitude, everything was difficult. We just made a little dash uphill and laid low. A civilian car drove past us. We were shocked, and I realized for myself that
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, well, most likely, God gave me this signal. Like, I saw the car in advance, we managed to hide, and we realized that that was it, we shouldn't walk along this road, we needed to change our course a bit. We sat for another 10
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minutes, a second civilian car passed, and just a couple of minutes later, the cops drove by. That really added a bit of tension. Well, just a little bit.
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And we decide to start off directly across the river, not by the road. And on the other side of the river was another forest. We quickly run across this river, soaking our shoes. We didn't take our shoes off, we just went
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in with our pants and shoes on. We held on carefully with those trekking poles so the wave of the current wouldn't knock us down. That's it, we ran into the forest, we made it across safely.
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That's it. Let's wring out our shoes. Well, the shoes, wringing the water out of the shoes, changing socks, so that, you know, we wouldn't be wet. Of course , it didn't help much. Our shoes stayed extremely wet, and because of that, it
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got even colder. Our feet were freezing . We changed our socks, took a break, drank some water, and moved on. That was, so to speak, our first little adventure on the way. That’s how we finished the third day. After that,
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there weren’t any particular adventures. We were just trekking through the worst of it, through total wilderness. Honestly, sometimes I don’t even know how we physically made it, because there were places where, well, I can't even grasp how we
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climbed through there or how we got up there. I guess we were just driven by the motivation to live, and we didn't have, let's say, any room for mistakes.
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And so we just kept pushing and pushing . The third day ended, we set up camp, and went to sleep. And I’ll add a little something about my partner. If he hears this, well, let him know, I’m not hiding anything. Uh, he was
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in a huge hurry. The mountains were easier for him than they were for me.
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He was tired, sure, but he kept up a very fast pace. And I couldn't keep that pace. And I kept asking him, "Wait for me, let me catch my breath." I was already confident that we would make it
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out. I mean, there was no need to panic , no need to rush. I understood that even if it took us a day or two longer, we would still get out. I knew that. My intuition just told me that we would
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make it. But he still kept rushing me anyway. Even in moments where I needed help, like climbing a mountain. There were such steep slopes that it sometimes felt like we were climbing a wall, but he would scramble up very
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actively, while I would just hang there for half an hour at a time. And what bothered me most, and I told him this later once we reached Romania, was that he didn't even want to wait for me. And
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when I needed a helping hand, he wouldn't offer it at all. And because of those moments, we almost got lost in the woods twice, because he wouldn't wait for me and would just run off ahead. But in general, that’s how the
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fourth day began. Uh, the fourth day passed without any particular adventures. We walked along calmly; we didn't see anyone or hear anyone. I don’t even know what exactly to say about the fourth day. Hmm, because nothing really special happened. But it
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arrived, and now I’ll move on to the fifth day. Uh, it was the fifth day, we started out, and my partner saw a little house in the woods, a wooden house. Probably mushroom pickers or loggers, I don't know the right word
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for them. Anyway, he saw a wooden house in the distance, and there was some person there. My partner was very anxious and scared on the trip, and he immediately started running away in the other direction at a fast pace. And the
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fuss, the unnecessary fuss—I want to say to everyone listening right now, you don't need to panic, don't create unnecessary fuss, don't be afraid, and don't be paranoid. If you have any of these traits, well, it's unlikely you'll make it out. You need to stay
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calm, keep a clear head, and do it with a cool head without any negative emotions. Anyway, my partner accelerated quickly. He said, "Let's get out of here fast." I didn't like that, because, well, I told him later: "Look, we could have just calmly walked
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to the side, gone around them without any extra fuss." I said: "You caused a panic." And throughout the whole route, he didn't want to listen to me at all.
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I don't know why, what was going on in his head. I planned the route, I had the route in my hands. Well, for the whole trip, I would say, from my point of view, I was more responsible than he
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was. Uh, anyway, we bypassed this house of loggers or mushroom pickers, it doesn't matter. We kept going. Further on, everything was quiet and calm just the same. And by the end of the fifth day, we were approaching a mountain.
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Not far from it, we decided to set up camp and spend the night, to, you know, get some rest. Although my partner wanted to walk a couple more hours, I understood that if we kept going and had to set everything up in the dark,
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well, it's not ideal, and there's no need to shine flashlights around unnecessarily. And I managed to convince him to set it up earlier. And if anything, we would start out earlier in the morning. Well, that's what we did. We spent the night. And, so, when
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the fifth day ended, I was running out of body warmers, and it was getting colder for me. I had to wear three pairs of socks on my feet. And my sleeping bag zipper broke too. I mean, I couldn't even zip myself up. That was
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it. Yeah. On the evening of the fifth day, my sleeping bag zipper broke, and we started to warm up using a gas canister. Our gas supply was still holding up; we had enough for food and to run the stove for warmth. That was a
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lifesaver. Uh. The morning of the sixth day arrived, and we had already begun climbing a high mountain. Uh, it's a popular mountain for tourists. And, as it turns out, I knew we might run into tourists along the way. And that’s
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exactly what happened. We were walking along the ridge near the very summit when a group of tourists appeared out of nowhere. But we didn’t panic at all; we felt quite calm. We walked past them, said hello, and that was it—the
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group went one way, and we kept going. And so, for the entire fifth day, we just walked along the ridges, on and on and on. Then later, a second group of tourists encountered us. They didn’t seem to care about us either. We
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greeted them, everyone seemed fine, and we all just went our separate ways, so to speak. Perhaps God was truly guiding us, because I’ve heard so many stories about guys running into people or tourists who spotted them, and their
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attempts ended in failure. Every day, I was surprised myself: why was it so calm? Even though we would cross onto trails and run into tourists, everything remained peaceful. Yeah. Yes , I prayed every single day. The whole way, I could be walking and reciting
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prayers. Perhaps my faith helped, so to speak, and kept all sorts of trouble away from us. Moving on. We spent the entire fifth day walking along the ridge, yes, as I said, along the ridges . We realized we couldn’t spend the
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night on the ridge at such an altitude. A very strong wind was blowing there.
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It was so strong that it sometimes knocked me over, and I weighed 100 kg at the time; the wind really pushed me around, and the tent would have been blown away entirely. We decided to traverse downwards, to descend and
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reach the area where there was forest, and to spend the night down there. We descended about 500 meters, yes, we went down about 500 to 550 meters. We were very thirsty because we had been walking almost all day without water.
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There is nowhere to get water on the ridges. And then, as we were already descending into the forest, thank God, I saw a little stream; I rushed straight to it, filled my hydration pack, filled my mug, and sat there
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drinking and drinking, trying to quench my thirst. I was constantly thirsty every day, but I always drink a lot of water, while my partner drank very little. And because of his pace, I couldn't get enough to drink because I
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felt I had to stop to hydrate, but he wouldn't wait for me. He just pushed ahead. I argued with him about this many times and explained my approach, but he didn't want to listen to me at all. I think that's a negative. And,
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guys, I want to tell everyone to keep a close eye on your partners and discuss everything and make agreements beforehand, so there aren't any, let's say, problems or misunderstandings during the hike, because that's very important. Thank God I’m not a
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confrontational person. Even though a lot of things about my partner really annoyed me. Illogical moments, like him hogging the blanket, even though we had equal rights, fifty-fifty. We were both in the same conditions and needed to listen to each other, but he absolutely
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didn't want to do that. In short, the fifth day ended. We spent the night in the forest, back down below. The sixth day arrived, and we had to traverse around a mountain. It was kind of a semi-dangerous area where it was better
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not to be seen at all. And we spent a long time going around it on traverses.
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By then we were already very, very tired, especially me. We were probably moving, but I don't even know at what speed. Maybe, at most, 500 meters an hour, probably. That was our maximum speed. My boots were wet, my clothes
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were wet, and the sleeping bag in my pack was also wet. That’s all extra weight. We spent half the day going around that mountain, although in reality, if we were moving at a normal speed, we could have done it much
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faster. We were just so tired that it took a lot of time. Anyway, we spent half the day going around it, slowly climbing back up. When we were almost back up on the ridge, I lost my partner because, again, he didn't want to wait
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for me while I scrambled up the mountain. And it was such a dangerous section that I literally slid down twice; I was just saved by branches along the way that I could at least hold onto. If not for those branches,
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well, I don't know, I would have just crashed to hell. And I was surprised by the fact that, well, it was a very critical moment, and my partner just didn't care at all; he climbed up and kept going. He didn't even look to see
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where I was, when I was there, what I was doing. And then, somehow, by the grace of God, I climb up, and I look, but he's not there. He's just nowhere to be found. And there’s just thicket all around. Where should I go? I
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don’t know where he went, you know. Yeah. I have the route map in my hands.
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He has the route, obviously. But I need to find him. And I'm taking a risk here , making a decision. I start yelling at the top of my lungs through the forest.
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Just yelling, calling him, silence. Dead silence. Nothing. I sat down and started to analyze, to think about what the right decision would be. Uh, I have the route, I think. I have the bolt cutter, I have my sleeping bag, but he
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had the tent. We had one shared two-person tent, he was carrying it. And I’m thinking: "If I go on without him now, how am I going to sleep?" And my hydration bladder tore, there was a hole in it. I was already out of water,
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we were relying on just one bladder from my partner. I was already drinking from his. I realized I had nowhere, well, physically nowhere to get more water. I’m sitting there, thinking all this over, and I decide to start
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yelling again. I yell and yell. And then he somehow answers me, somewhere far away, I hear a voice. I start slowly moving towards that voice, walking, yelling again. I hear it, I’m getting closer. Oh, I’m getting closer, I found him. And he’s just
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sitting there. He’s just sitting there like nothing happened. Totally chilling, just sitting there. Excuse my language. Sorry, emotions are just getting the better of me. He’s sitting there, and—well, in short— he’s even annoyed that I took so long
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. I tell him, like, "Dude, you keep rushing ahead in critical moments where you shouldn't." I tumbled down twice, and you weren't there. I say: "Do you realize, if I had broken my leg or twisted my ankle, that would be it at
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the very least." I say: "What would you have done?" Seriously, what would you have done? What would I have done? And he’s there arguing with me again, arguing. Uh, well, I guess that’s just the kind of person he is. I'm not
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judging him in any way. I have no right to judge him for it. I’m just expressing my own opinion. He’s already heard this. And he’s giving me grief again about why I’m taking so long. All right, let's keep going.
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We finally climbed all the way up to this ridge. We're finally walking on a flat path. We picked up the pace, sped up a bit, and covered some ground.
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Honestly, I don't know how many kilometers we covered. I wasn't keeping track of that. He was the one leading us, sort of. I didn't even want to look at the map. I just, well, wasn't in the mood for it. And he didn't count the
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mileage either. The only thing I remember about the mileage is the last day. Now, well, we'll get to that last day eventually. The sixth day, the sixth day is already ending, just the same, with no adventures to speak of.
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We didn't, let's say, encounter any bad people who could do us harm. Uh-huh. We hadn't seen or heard anyone at all. I was even surprised that I was yelling through the whole forest and nobody spotted us. And this was already
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the sixth day, and we exited on the seventh. So we were, well, not far from the border. At the end of the sixth day , in the evening, we went down the traverses into the woods to spend the
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night. We, uh, spent the night. Uh, physically, we were just totally spent. Our feet were torn up, bruised, and covered in blisters. Our whole bodies were sore. We were taking meds. We were taking painkillers every day, but they
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didn't help. We had Nimesil. Whoever is going to take Nimesil, don't take it at all. It doesn't help even by 1%. Take something stronger. And I, it turns out , drank two packets of Nimesil. And then, in the middle of the night, I get
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heartburn for the first time. I had never known what heartburn was in my entire life. And then these strange sensations started. Well, very painful ones. And my partner asks me what's wrong with me. I tell him: "This and
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that." He tells me: "That's heartburn you've got." I was stunned. Mm. He gave me an antacid pill. I felt better in the middle of the night, because if it wasn't for that pill, I don't know how much longer I would have suffered. I
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managed to fall asleep somehow. Mm, everything was already wet. And the sleeping bag too, yes. And then the seventh day arrived. We started the seventh day a little bit earlier. We woke up at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.
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At 6 and a little bit, we were already set, we had started walking. We ate two freeze-dried meals each to gain some strength. M. And so the seventh day was physically, physically very difficult.
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We only had enough strength left, well, I don't know, I don't know how much strength was even left. And we kept going, luckily we were already on the trails. We were just blindly following the trails. No traversing, no climbing,
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nothing like that. Because if we had taken a traverse, it would have added another day or two. We wanted to reach the exit by the seventh day. And looking at the map, my partner sees we're making good time, covering
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distance quite fast. So he says, "Let's try to make it out today." We were actually planning to exit on the eighth day. I still had some doubts, and I was analyzing my physical energy, thinking that well, I didn't think it was
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entirely possible to make it out. He was pushing for today, saying "Come on, let's do it, let's finish today," having covered some distance since morning. And we probably had another seven kilometers to reach the trailhead . By then, it was already about one in
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the afternoon. So, at one o'clock, we had only covered 5 km. Then my partner says, "Let's dump the tent, the sleeping bag, everything unnecessary, keep only the essentials." I still had my doubts about ditching such important gear, because I thought, "What if we
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don't make it out today, how are we going to sleep?" There was already snow toward the end, a decent depth, at least ankle-deep. I thought if we dumped the sleeping bags and tents, the night might be rough, but I took the
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risk, gave the go-ahead, we ditched everything and kept pushing on. Trails, trails, trails. Moving, moving, moving.
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Silence. And there were only 3 km left to the trailhead. We were in open fields. We were passing these different mountain huts. My partner was afraid to pass them. So, whenever he spotted those cabins in the distance, he would
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pause and ask me what they were. I'd say, "Wait here." I went ahead first to scout them out, and I realized, "Well, they're abandoned, there's nothing here .""It’s not like anyone needs this place.""There's no way anyone could be
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here." I’d call him over and say, " It's all clear, let's keep going." And that's how we just brazenly kept moving . We even started cracking some jokes.
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Trying to use humor to lift the morale and get re-motivated to make it out.
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And honestly, I don't know how we didn't trigger any trail cameras, or any covert sensors, absolutely nothing.
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We were just walking brazenly, talking even through open clearings. It's not like we were walking in silence; we were talking at the top of our lungs and filming videos along the way. And there was only a kilometer left. A
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kilometer, yes, until I see the fence, and it turns out there's this little wooden cabin there. I sort of realized that, possibly, some bad people had been hanging out there. My partner suggested we bypass it, but I was
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analyzing things based on my remaining physical strength. I knew that bypassing it meant going off-trail again across the slopes, which would drag on, and I might not make it, because I was purely dragging my feet as best I could with those blisters. I
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said, "Stay here, I'll go check out this cabin myself right now." I go, I look at this cabin, and near the cabin is a hole dug in the ground, and in it is a pile of trash, those things, what
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are they called properly, I've already forgotten. In short, military food. Those bags, dry rations. I realize that border guards had been hanging out here . Probably, at the very least, they definitely hang out here in the summer, because there was, well, a ton of this
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trash. All these different canned goods and military packaging, but there was absolutely no one there. I call my partner over and say, "That's it, let's keep going, the coast is clear, let's move, move." And we still had to enter
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the forest before the finish line. I had actually agreed to that myself. I was the one who told him, "Let's go into the forest just in case." Because we were already walking brazenly, we'd covered so much ground brazenly, like,
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we're lucky, lucky, good, thank God, but let's step into the forest. We enter the forest, and we had to gain some elevation there. The fence itself was located at a height, so to speak, on the mountain ridge. And we're
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climbing, climbing, I push through the spruces. And there's the Yegoza wire. I'm like, "Whoa, I knew it would be there, but I didn't know it would be right under my nose, right through the spruces like that." But my partner
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panicked a little bit right away. He didn't know what to do. I take out the bolt cutters. I tell him, "You stand nearby, listen for noise, keep a lookout, I'm going to cut it now." And, in short, I cut it very quickly. In
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three bites. 1, 2, 3. It opened up and fell apart. And I wanted to calm my partner down. I told him in advance, " I'm going to cut the Yegoza now." I said, "Don't panic, don't get paranoid, let's just keep going calmly." At that
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point, past Yegaza, there was a road covered in snow, but I could see there wasn't a hint of any fresh tracks. I said, "I'm cutting across now, and we'll head calmly up into the forest." I said, "Don't panic." But he just kept
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going anyway, rushing off somewhere on his own. Those kinds of unnecessary bursts of energy aren't needed by anyone. The snow was deep, we started climbing the mountain, sinking into the snow, but he was still faster than me.
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And that's when I realized I couldn't get out. That was it, there was no way I could make it up. I was knee-deep in the snow. And even the nearby branches I tried to grab weren't saving me. I
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couldn't do a thing anymore. I called him back. But he, like...After Yegaza, we made a push; we had to go uphill again, so the path was covered in snow, but there were no fresh tracks on it. I was moving along calmly, but my partner
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rushed ahead of me, nervous, climbing up like that. Then I tried to climb, sank knee-deep into the snow, and started to realize I wouldn't get out without help. The slope was just so steep, plus the snow—it all physically held me back. And on top of
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that, well, I had almost no strength left. I called for my partner to come back and pull me out, to give me a hand , but he didn't really want to do it. I barely persuaded him to come back and
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reach out to me. Mm, he pulled me out in the end, and we were only about 50 meters from the border posts. And we crawled and crawled. Just kept crawling upwards. We got stuck in the snow many times, both me and him. And finally, it
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was happening. We reached the top. I saw our Ukrainian and the Romanian post . It was completely silent there. There was no one around, so I understood that we weren't a concern to anyone there anymore. We stood up, even managed to
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take some photos, and that was it. And we headed down to the Romanian side calmly, without any unnecessary fuss.
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We descended. And my plan was just to lie down and rest. I could have rested safely, just not worried, and that's all. We crossed the border posts at 6:30 PM and trekked for 2 hours through Romania to the nearest settlement. On
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the way, we passed various wooden houses. I suggested to my partner many times that we should spend the night, because, well, our legs were completely shot. Mm, and it would have been more logical to spend the night in one of
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those houses. So many other guys have done that. And early in the morning, we would have met someone along the way and gotten a ride. But he didn't want to do that. He was very afraid to sleep in a cabin like that. He was very
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afraid that there would be some wild animals at night. By the way, I almost forgot to mention this. Throughout the whole hike, he was afraid of wild boars and bears. And he didn't want to sleep in the tent near the exit. I was the
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one sleeping near the exit. I mean, he was even afraid of that, in a way. Well , all right, everyone looks at things in their own way. And so we kept trudging along until 2:00 in the morning. And we see a civilian car
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ahead, a Renault. A white Renault Logan . The brake lights are on. We walk up and say: "We need the border police." In short, we're from Ukraine, and this turned out to be the police in a civilian car. I don't know why. The
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driver turned out to be a decent guy, cheerful and positive, but his partner was, well, to put it mildly, a very rude, unpleasant person. He started getting indignant with us, like, why are you from Ukraine, why aren't you
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fighting? Go back. Why did you come here? I was very surprised by that because many people had told me that these border police welcome you almost with open arms. Maybe I'm exaggerating.
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But just that they give you a warm welcome. And here, they hadn't even put us in the car yet, and they were already like, "Passports, phones, lay everything out," in a really rude way.
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Well, we handed everything over, and they immediately put us in the car and took us to the station. Started processing us. They took away anything extra. The spray, the knife, the burner , the bolt cutters, they took it all.
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They did a short interrogation, asking us where we crossed and to point it out on the map. We said that we didn't know anymore because we ended up at the finish line, so to speak, without a phone. Our phones had died, supposedly,
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and we just came out at random. That's what we said. They still didn't believe us and tried to somehow trick us into revealing our exit point. But, in short , we stuck to our story, and my temperature also spiked that night,
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probably because of the hike and the cold. So, in the station, I was just shivering from everything. I felt cold, then I would get feverish. I ask the police officer for some hot water, just hot water, to brew my medicine. And he
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refused even that simple hot water, saying they didn't have any. How can that be? Is it impossible to set up a kettle in the station or what? Well, it’s just illogical. Hmm, uh, let's see. Uh, they checked our phones
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completely, even though many guys said they don't check the whole phone, only, you know, some other part, whatever.
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But they checked our entire gallery and something else too. I don't know, I don't know why they did it that way.
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Well, anyway, I didn't bother arguing with them, because it was pointless. We had already crossed the border illegally. After that, they took us, oh , not took, they led us down to the basement floor. And there were many
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different rooms where there were other "draft dodgers" like us. People were sleeping there in beds. They put us, so to speak, in with two others. We met them and chatted for a while. And, in total, during those 24 hours, there
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were 15 other people in the station with us. That’s including us, plus us . Two of us. We spent the night there.
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I passed out immediately. Even though they were still talking to each other and getting acquainted, I passed out right away. I didn't have the energy for anything at all. Plus a fever. Uh, in the morning, they told us all to
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pack up. They put us in a big bus and took us to, what is this city called, I don’t remember the name. It is located right on the border with Ukraine. The Tisa River also runs along it. I think many have already
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understood what city I'm talking about. That’s where they process you and give you this temporary protection. So they started processing us, taking our fingerprints. They gave us temporary protection, and that was it, we were leaving the station. And it turns out
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that at the moment of leaving, I only had 20 euros in my pocket. I didn't take anything else. No cards, no other cash at all. I just took 20 euros and that was it. And we went out and just
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started walking randomly to find at least some exchange office so I could swap those 20 euros. And maybe find some hostel. And the funniest thing is, partner, if you hear this, I was just a bit shocked. Anyway, my partner says to
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me: "Well, let's go eat on your 20 euros," even though those 20 euros were all I had. And meanwhile, my partner had already received money sent to him.
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So he had money, but I hadn't received mine yet. So I was still scrambling to figure things out and find at least some kind of help. I sort of explain to my partner: "No, like, we aren't going to eat on my 20 euros. I'm just, I'm
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dealing with my own stuff now, like I need to solve my own problems." I say: "That's it, see ya, sort of." I say: " Let's keep in touch, we'll meet up if anything." I walk off, find an exchange
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office, and change the 20 euros. It came to something like, 200, I think, Romanian currency, but that’s not the point. Anyway, I'm walking past some cafe, and there are some other Ukrainians sitting there who were with us at the station. I sat down with them
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, just to chat. We exchanged phone numbers. And then some guy asks me: "Do you need any help, like with a hostel or something?" I say: "Yes." He tells me: "Come on, I'll drive you." He spoke Russian; he was Romanian himself, but
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he spoke Russian. We get into his car. I was still feeling a little bit suspicious. Well, because I thought, what if this is some kind of lie, a scam, and so on. Hmm, but it turned out everything was fine. I ask him: "How
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much will a hostel room cost for a night?" He tells me: "15 euros." And he asks me: "Well, how are you doing with money in general?" But I say: "Well, I just came out with, like, a twenty-euro bill and that's it, I have nothing else
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." And he says: "Well okay, I'll, like, I'll get you a room for 10 euros, you know, it'll all be fine, you'll wash up , and so on." I thanked him, he drives me there, I paid him 10 euros, but in
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lei. I’m just converting it into euros for myself, it’s easier for me that way. Hmm, the room was good for two people, all the amenities, wide, soft beds, a shower, well, everything as it should be. Anyway, I’m sitting
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there, well, like, done, I changed, getting ready for a shower. And then, I don't know, whether this is a coincidence or not. My partner walks into the room. Ah, yes, they probably gave him the same advice and brought
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him there, ah, but that's not the point . He checked into my room. We checked in there for 2 days, yes. We washed up, uh, washed up, and I sort of decided to go out for a walk on my own. I just
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wanted to be by myself. And he did the same thing. He went off on his own way to walk. And so, later that evening we got back to the room, he bought himself something to eat, various burgers, french fries, that sort of thing. I
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didn't buy myself anything to eat because I was still saving money and waiting for my transfer to arrive on my card. I needed quite a lot. Um, anyway, that first day in the hostel I was hungry, I didn't eat anything, I even
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drank tap water. And the next morning, finally, my first funds arrive. The first thing I needed was 150 euros to get to Serbia and get the stamps. I mean, there was a choice between going to Moldova or Serbia. I chose Serbia
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because that guy from the hostel suggested it, and he’s the one who takes people to Serbia. And so the first thing I got on my card was 150 euros for that. And there was just a little bit of extra money on top, just
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enough to buy some rolls, some water. Well, I went to Lidl, bought a couple of rolls and water, sat on a bench and ate it all while my partner had a tasty meal. Uh, it's not that I envy him, no,
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it's just, well, thank God he had that opportunity. I’m just explaining how people ate and how they started out.
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Anyway, on the third evening, a group of us, there were other Ukrainians there too, were put into a van. Yeah, it actually sounds pretty sad. Being put into a van after Ukraine. Oh well.
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And we drive to Serbia, arrive at the border, and we crossed it on foot. And the thing is, we all messed up, we didn't know. It turns out that in the end, we only have Serbian stamps.
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Romanian, meaning Schengen stamps, we don't have. I don't know how that happened. I don't know how the Romanians registered us at the border when we were going from them into Serbia and likewise coming back from Serbia into Romania, but the Romanians
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didn't stamp us. So, guys, don't miss that moment. If they don't stamp you, just tell them. But we just didn't know . And we were left with only Serbian stamps. After that, they took us back to the city, but to a different one. I
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urgently needed accommodation for 3 days because I was waiting for extra money to leave Romania. And the accommodation turned out to be budget-friendly. I paid 2,000 hryvnias for 3 days. I think that's absolutely great. How much that is in euros, I
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don't even know anymore. You figure it out. Basically, I paid 2,000 hryvnias for 3 days. I was given a separate room . It was like an apartment, not a hostel, just an apartment. There were two other Ukrainian guys there, good
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guys. I got to know them; they helped me and even fed me there. We made lunch and dinner together. They were really great guys, they understood my situation, and overall, more money came in for me. I booked a flight from
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Romania to Germany. I flew to Germany, arriving in Berlin. My friend met me there. We hung out in Berlin for two days, and then we took a bus to Poland.
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Even though I didn't need to go to Poland at all, I just went there for fun to see my friend. So we arrived in Poland, and that is where I am right now. I’ll be leaving here soon for
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the Netherlands to get registered there . I'm going to try to seek protection there. My relatives are there, and there will be work for me, thank God; considering the gear, I think I spent quite a reasonable budget. It all came
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out to 500 dollars. Somewhere I looked for discounts, and some things I didn't buy because I didn't see the need. So, all the gear cost 500 dollars, and the ticket to the starting point cost 1,000 hryvnias. Yeah. Uh, so in total, it was
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about 20,000 plus a little extra for the whole start. I wouldn't do this again, neither with a new partner nor this one. And why? Because mountains are the kind of thing where, as I realized, you need to be very
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experienced and very well-prepared, both physically and mentally. I mean, mentally it was easy for me, but physically I overestimated myself; I thought, "Well, I feel fine in everyday life, I move around a lot." But the mountains are something else entirely.
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There are very dangerous moments, very critical moments. At high altitude, there is high pressure, and every body reacts to it differently. Some get nauseous, some get dizzy, and so on.
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Even if I were offered money now, I wouldn't do it again for any amount.
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Some people like it, some want to go through that experience again. It's not for me. Every day I walked and prayed for it all to just end. At the finish line, when we were standing by the markers, I looked back at all those
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mountains of ours, and I almost felt sick. I felt so lousy just looking at the mountains, that even now, uh, after all this time, I still haven't fully recovered. Physically, too. I mean, my bruises are still healing, and these
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feelings and memories of what I went through are still there. And even thinking about it, well, it makes me feel uneasy inside. What I would change in my gear, that's first. Definitely the sleeping bag. Whatever you do, don't take a standard-issue sleeping
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bag; it’s warm, yes. But it’s very bulky. It...I had an 85-liter backpack. That sleeping bag took up so much space in the pack, and it’s heavy. Buy a proper, decent sleeping bag, not a heavy one, and check the temperature
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rating to make sure it’s warm enough. My mistake was that I tried to save money and stuck with that bag. Uh, next , what else I would change about my gear—probably, probably my pants. The pants, because, well, I bought the
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wrong size, but they fit me really well , they sat perfectly, but for some reason, the whole way they kept falling off, falling off, falling off, and there was just an elastic band. I mean, there was nowhere to put a belt, so I
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constantly had to tie them up and pull them up. It tormented me, it threw me off. So yeah, I would change the pants too. Likewise, yes, look for higher-quality pants, definitely try them on, and check the size. Regarding
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footwear, I had no complaints; I had military combat boots, they handled everything very well, didn't tear, nothing at all. How many different rivers we waded through, I dove into them, how many times I fell. But they did their job, so to speak. And for
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anyone who has military boots, wear them, you won't regret it. They are, especially if they’re winter ones, they are warm. Well, that’s probably about it. Everything else, well, everything else was fine. I probably wouldn't change anything else about the
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gear. How much we covered each day, I don't know, I didn't keep track of that . But the entire route as a whole was plus or minus 55 kilometers. How much we covered each day, I don't know, but
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on the last seventh day, I think we walked all the way to the finish line.
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I mean, from the morning to the finish, I think it was about 12 kilometers, plus another 10 kilometers inside Romania itself. I didn't have a booking , I'm AWOL. How did I make it across Ukraine? Well, putting my faith
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entirely in God. My girlfriend went to the train station first to scout it out . We arrived at the station by taxi, got out quickly, boarded the train five minutes before it left, and arrived safely. Twenty-six years old. What line
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of work do I plan to go into? I’d like to continue as a chef, because in Ukraine, my last job was working as a cook. There are options in the Netherlands too, but you need good English. My English was decent, well,
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not exactly great, just a normal level. Uh, I understand it. I think I’ll brush up on it, that won't be a problem . Also, I have a driver’s license, so there’s a possibility of working as a driver somewhere. In short, that’s
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the direction I’m heading. Why did I choose the Netherlands? It just worked out that way, honestly. I have two people there who are very close to me.
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They’ve been living there for a long time and know a lot. They can help me find work. I also had the idea of going to Germany. I looked into Germany. At first, it seemed like everything there was straightforward. Then people who
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are already in Germany, or who have left Germany, started explaining things to me. I started comparing the pros and cons with the Netherlands. I weighed it all and decided that for my own peace of mind, I’d be better off there than
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in Germany. I don’t see or consider any other countries for now. I want to thank everyone who listened to me, and all the admins. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity, so to speak, to vent. I also want to thank
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my girlfriend. I am incredibly grateful to her for everything we’ve shared over the past year. She carried everything, helped me, and supported me to the very end, throughout this journey and even now. Uh, can we even use names? Then we’ll go without
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names. Just so, if possible, that it comes out later. Well, the speech on YouTube. Anyway, I want to thank my two close friends. Who are currently living and staying in the Netherlands. A huge thank you to them as well for the
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support and the help they have provided me. Also, a huge thank you to my friend who is currently in Poland. He is also, uh, helping me to the very end. Anyway, I am incredibly grateful to all the people God has sent into my life. Uh,
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what else can I say? And I also wish luck to my friends who are currently in Odesa. They’ve already been AWOL twice and are planning to bail out, they’re already buying gear. I wish them huge success. I hope that God
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guides them as safely as He did me. What can I say about motivation? Hmm, well, my personal advice to the guys who are going to set out is that you need to be more mentally prepared. You need to be mentally prepared more than
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physically. Because, as experience shows, fear and paranoia always lead to a dead end, and people get caught. So, if you are afraid, stay home a bit longer until that fear leaves you.
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Because back in my time, I was afraid too, I wanted to leave, but I had fear, and I prayed and prayed, and the fear left me. At some point, I stopped being afraid altogether and started off confidently and safely. I advise you to
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do the same; if you have doubts, don't go, just wait it out. Prepare, prepare physically, prepare mentally; also, go to the gym, it’s better to have that base. Prepare physically; it’s best to start six months in advance. Prepare
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actively, play sports. It will help you in the forest and in the mountains, and you will succeed. And be sure to keep a close eye on your partner. This is very important, because you’ve already heard my story about what happened with
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my partner. Uh, this is a very critical moment. Even if it’s a stranger to you, you are still responsible for each other’s lives on the journey. And this is far from a joke. You can’t just, uh, so to speak, not give a damn
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about your partner and just push forward like that. While they get stuck in the snow somewhere or tumble down a mountain. You can’t do that, so approach this responsibly. I believe, I know, that you will all succeed and
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find your freedom.
Topics:Ukraine draft evasionmilitary service escapeRomania border crossingdraft dodgers storyescape route preparationmountain trek escapemilitary enlistment officeborder crossing challengespersonal survival storydraft evasion 2025
