Poland and Lithuania may repatriate men to Ukraine to aid war
Poland and Lithuania have said they are prepared to help Ukrainian authorities return men subject to military conscription to the country, after Kyiv announced this week that it was suspending consular services for such men currently abroad.
“We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to [compulsory] military service go to Ukraine,” Poland’s defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the television channel Polsat, though he did not elaborate on what mechanisms could be used.
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, his Lithuanian counterpart, said his country may make similar efforts. “Ukraine is very short of mobilisation reserve … This is not fair to those citizens who are fighting for their country.”
Ukraine is struggling to overcome a huge equipment and personnel deficit in comparison with Russia’s troops at the frontline. The parliament has recently passed a law on mobilisation that lowers the age at which men can be called up from 27 to 25.
On Wednesday the foreign ministry said it would suspend consular services for men subject to the draft who were living abroad. There were angry scenes at consular offices and agencies in Poland later in the day, where men who had booked appointments to pick up documents were told they could not do so.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told the Guardian on Wednesday it was unacceptable for Ukrainian men outside the country to “sit down in restaurants” while others were dying, and said the move was partly about demonstrating fairness to those at the front.
Thousands of men are believed to have crossed Ukraine’s western borders illegally since the war began. However, many other Ukrainian men have lived outside the country for years. Some returned after the war started, but many have lives outside the country and do not wish to return. There are also many Ukrainian men in Europe from war-torn eastern areas of the country, who left their homes via Russia in the early stages of the war since it was the only way out.
Igor Lisin, vice-president of Foundation Ukraine, a group working with Ukrainians in Poland, said that while there were no official figures for how many men of military age were living outside the country, as a “very rough estimate” he believed about 300,000 to 400,000 were in Poland.
Tadeusz Kołodziej, a lawyer with the Ocalenie Foundation, a Polish NGO, said there was no mechanism by which Polish authorities could deport Ukrainian men to Ukraine, and no current plans to declare their presence in the country illegal.
But the Polish parliament is due to consider new regulations next week that would require all Ukrainians to show a valid passport to be able to access benefits in Poland. Previously, Ukrainian refugees had been able to do so by showing other documents.
“The draft text we have seen would cut around 80% of benefits for people without passports,” Kołodziej said. “In time, there may also be questions about whether people without a passport can work legally. If it will be impossible to get a passport, many of these people may ask for asylum.”
The law on mobilisation comes into force mid-May. “But there is no legal instrument to force [people back],” noted Lisin.
However, he said the recent messaging had caused stress among many in Poland’s Ukrainian community, partly because of the uncertainty.
Poland’s government remains one of Ukraine’s most vocal backers in the EU. However, there has been evidence of increasing “Ukraine fatigue” in Polish society as the war drags on. Surveys show attitudes to Ukrainian refugees becoming less welcoming.
‘We can help Ukraine ensure that people subject to military service go to Ukraine’
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz Polish minister