The man reportedly put on a skirt and wig in an attempt to leave Ukraine illegally in order to avoid being forced into the army, he was caught as he tried to cross the border into neighbouring Romania
Ukrainian man caught after dressing as sister to flee country
A video clip has emerged showing a 44-year-old Ukrainian man who tried to disguise himself as his sister to avoid being conscripted.
The man reportedly put on a skirt and wig in an attempt to leave Ukraine illegally in order to avoid being forced into the army to fight Russia. He was caught as he tried to cross the border out of Ukraine into neighbouring Romania in the bizarre disguise dressed as a woman.
In the footage, the burly man can be heard speaking to the police in a deep gravelly voice as he wears a black skirt, a green polo shirt and a wig under a hat. Ukraine’s State Border Service shared the footage after he was caught trying to use his sister’s passport to flee the country on May 6.
They said in a statement: “A 44-year-old resident of Zolotonosha, disguised as a woman, was detained this morning by border guards of the ‘Predator’ branch of the Mukachevo detachment near the border with Romania.
“‘Armed’ with his sister’s passport, an unpretentious ‘fashion bow’, makeup and a wig, the man came to Transcarpathia to try to illegally cross the Ukrainian-Romanian border.
“The disguise manoeuvre was easily exposed as soon as the man entered the border crossing. However, he tried hard to pull it off, claiming he was a citizen of Ukraine and he even provided his passport for verification.”
They added: “In relation to the detainee, a report on the administrative offence provided for in Art. 204-1 of the Criminal Procedure Code ‘Illegal crossing or attempted illegal crossing of the state border of Ukraine’, the case was referred to the court.”
It was not confirmed if the suspect was trying to dodge Ukraine’s military draft laws but Ukraine decreed martial law at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, which bans men aged 18 to 60 from travelling abroad without special dispensation.
The country also began a rolling mobilisation of civilian men into the Armed Forces to fight back against Russian invasion. In February Volodymyr Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed during Russia’s invasion, the American defence think tank the Atlantic Council estimates there are currently around one million Ukrainians in uniform.
