Ukrainian authorities have reconsidered their decision to extradite and punish draft dodgers who have left the country

The representative of the President of Ukraine in parliament and a member of the Committee on National Security and Defense of Ukraine, Fedor Venislavsky, has changed his opinion on punishing men who evade mobilization abroad.

He made this statement in an interview with the BBC.

“I was sincerely convinced that it was possible. Then, when the discussion began, I realized that this way we could not only encourage their return – we might cut off the desire to return to Ukraine at all. It’s not worth doing now. After the war, we need to ensure, let’s say, a demographic policy, at least the preservation of our Ukrainian nation. So, punishment could have a reverse effect,” said the President’s representative in parliament in an interview with the BBC.

Earlier, it was reported that the likelihood of the authorities carrying out the threat of mass extradition of conscripts who left the country is close to zero.

Extradition is a very labor-intensive procedure. It starts with legal proceedings in Ukraine. A Ukrainian court must make a decision on the person’s arrest in absentia, after which this decision must come into effect – that is, it must withstand any appeals, if there are any. Only then can an extradition request be submitted.

Moreover, an extradition request cannot be sent to an unspecified destination. To begin with, the suspect’s location must be determined, and the request must be sent to that specific country. Ukraine does not have the human and organizational resources to locate tens or hundreds of thousands of draft dodgers through operational measures.

However, an alternative approach could be to declare draft dodgers internationally wanted through Interpol, and once they are detained anywhere, an extradition request can be sent.

Nevertheless, Interpol’s response to the situation where there would be tens of thousands of requests for search could be extremely negative, potentially leading to the blocking of all extradition requests from Ukraine.