Ukrainian border guards have prevented 23 conscripted men from fleeing to neighbouring Moldova.
The group reportedly reached the border in the Podilsk district of the Odessa region with a grain truck and was detained during the subsequent attempt to escape on foot, the authorities said on Wednesday.
Their destination was said to be Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria.
To corroborate this, the border guards showed footage captured with a night-vision device of the escapees in a field.
The men allegedly paid a smuggler between €4,600 and €14,800 ($4,800 and $15,500) in cryptocurrency. They now face fines for attempting illegal border crossing and will be handed over to the district military recruitment office.
Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine over two years ago, Ukraine imposed martial law and ordered a mobilization. Since then, conscripted men aged between 18 and 60 can only leave the country in exceptional cases.
Nevertheless, many attempt to flee across the green border, primarily to the neighbouring EU countries.
According to Defence Ministry data, since the war began, over 400,000 men have been put on the wanted list for ignoring muster or conscription notices, the majority of them from the particularly patriotic western Ukrainian regions.