“They should have been mobilized”: Dykyi criticized the decision to allow men under 22 to travel abroad

Young people under the age of 22 should not have been allowed to go abroad — they should have been mobilized instead.

This statement was made by Yevhen Dykyi, former commander of the Aidar battalion, in an interview on the YouTube channel Novynarnia.

According to him, due to a “stupid” government decree allowing young people to leave, 10,000 young Ukrainians left the country within two months — more than the number who voluntarily joined the army under the “youth contract” program over the past six months.

“Unfortunately, we’ve raised a generation of 18- to 24-year-olds who immediately left as soon as they were allowed to. When that stupid, idiotic government decree came out opening the borders for youth under 22, ten thousand left in the first month alone. The 18–24 age group should have been mobilized and in no case allowed to leave,” Dykyi said.

According to Germany’s Interior Ministry, after the border was opened to young Ukrainians, the number of arrivals aged 18–22 rose from 19 per week in mid-August to over 1,000 in mid-September, and then to 1,400–1,800 in October.

Earlier, Western media reported on the mass departure of Ukrainian youth following the opening of borders for citizens under 22.

It should also be recalled that European Commissioner Ylva Johansson recently warned the Ukrainian authorities that after March 2027, the EU will phase out its support program for Ukrainian refugees, and therefore Kyiv should prepare for the return of the most vulnerable categories of people.