Fast 100.000 junge Männer fliehen innerhalb von zwei Monaten aus der Ukraine

Almost 100,000 fighting-age Ukrainian men have left the country in the past two months after Volodymyr Zelensky eased departure rules, new figures show.

Poland’s border guard said 99,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 had crossed the frontier – the primary route out of the country – since regulations to ensure that Kyiv had enough soldiers were relaxed at the end of August.

American generals and politicians had complained that Mr Zelensky’s refusal to draft any men of fighting age was hurting Ukraine’s hopes of resisting Russia’s invasion or pressing home advantages.

This fear has been echoed among European officials, who are concerned that Kyiv has not done enough to plug manpower shortages.

Some 45,300 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 22 entered Poland from January to just before the rule change at the end of August, according to Poland’s border guards. In the next two months, that number more than doubled to 98,500, or 1,600 a day.

The rising number of Ukrainians will pile pressure on Mr Merz to cut support for refugees from the war-torn country sheltering in Germany.

Jurgen Hardt, the Right-wing CDU party’s foreign affairs foreign policy chief, told Politico: “We have no interest in young Ukrainian men spending their time in Germany instead of defending their country. Ukraine makes its own decisions, but the recent change in the law has led to a trend of emigration that we must address.”