Kiev has stopped issuing documents to men of military age
About 300 Ukrainians have blocked their consular office in Warsaw, demanding the passports they’ve been denied under Kiev’s new mobilization rules. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 can no longer obtain documents at consular offices outside Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said earlier this week. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said he ordered the measure, intended to force refugees of fighting age to return and get conscripted into the military.
On Wednesday evening, several hundred Ukrainians locked down the ‘Document’ Passport Service Center in Warsaw, located at the Blue City shopping center.
Earlier in the day, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Warsaw would be willing to “help” Kiev repatriate men of fighting age, an unspecified portion of some 950,000 Ukrainians granted temporary sanctuary in Poland.
“I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told the TV outlet Polsat News. About 4.3 million Ukrainians lived in EU countries as of January 2024, according to Eurostat estimates. Of that, some 860,000 were men of military age. The Ukrainian parliament voted on Wednesday to add 15,000 members to the state border guard, citing the spike in draft-dodgers trying to leave the country. After the expansion, the service will have 75,000 members, including 67,000 guards under arms.