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Viktor Pinkhasov can’t stop smiling. He has just managed to escape Ukraine after hiking alone for five days across the Carpathian Mountains.

“I want to go and be free, to live,” the 34-year-old told CNN in disbelief after arriving in neighboring Romania. He is one of dozens making the illegal crossing from western Ukraine every week.

After nearly four years of pushing against Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine is facing a growing manpower crisis: Kyiv’s forces are trying to hold a more than 600-mile front line against Russian troops who are pressing a relentless war of attrition.

CNN spoke to half a dozen draft evaders who didn’t want to risk dying in a conflict with no end in sight – despite [color=var(--theme-semantic-color-link-primary-base-default)]attempts by the Trump administration and foreign powers to negotiate one. Russia meanwhile can draw on a population more than three times larger than Ukraine’s to fill its ranks, despite mounting casualties.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened nearly 290,000 criminal cases into soldiers’ absence without leave and desertion up to September, according to the Ukrainska Pravda media outlet. Martial law bars all men aged 23 to 60 who are eligible for military service from leaving the country.

For Pinkhasov, who worked as a taxi driver in Kyiv, life back home became what he described as unbearable, even as US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders advance competing visions for ending the war.

“Nobody wants peace. Not Putin, not Zelensky, not Trump,” he said bluntly over a cup of tea in the Romanian border town of Sighetu Marmatiei – the air thick with smoke from wood stoves battling against the cold.

He said he spent about a month preparing for the crossing, poring endlessly over navigation apps and Telegram channels where people recount their experience and share tips. Pinkhasov also stocked up on dozens of energy bars and second-hand survival gear. He ditched it all in the mountains on his last day so he could sprint across the border and avoid being caught by Ukraine’s border guards.

Once on the other side, an elated Pinkhasov joined more than 30,000 Ukrainian men who have crossed into Romania illegally since the beginning of the conflict in 2022, according to that country’s border police. They have all been granted temporary protection status, a European Union measure that is offered to anyone fleeing the war.

Ukraine’s own state border guard service says more than 25,000 people have been caught on their way out. And that’s just to Romania. Many more flee to Moldova, Hungary, Belarus and other countries.

Not everyone makes it through unscathed. At least 29 men have died trying to cross the treacherous mountains or by drowning in the Tisa river, which separates part of northern Romania from southwestern Ukraine.

Dima, who asked to use a pseudonym out of concern for his privacy, lost all his toes to frostbite after spending five days trying to navigate the slopes in subzero temperatures. “It was a shock when I saw my feet,” the 42-year-old construction worker told CNN. “Every single day it hurts. Every minute, every second hurts.”

The father of two left Ukraine after being served draft papers in the early days of the war. He paid smugglers to help him flee in April 2022, but says they didn’t warn him of the deadly risks ahead. “When we were at the top of the mountain, there was a big blizzard, snow. We couldn’t see each other if we moved a meter away,” Dima recalled.

One of the men with whom he was traveling froze to death. The weather was so bad that his body couldn’t be retrieved for weeks. Dima was convinced that he too would die. But Romania’s Salvamont Maramures rescue service airlifted him off the mountain just in time.

Dan Benga is the man in charge of those rescue missions. A former rugby player turned businessman, he has since 2017 dedicated his life to saving those who get in trouble in the mountains, the second-longest range in Europe.

Together with other state agencies, his team has picked up 377 Ukrainian men in less than four years.

Dan Benga's Salvamont Maramures mountain rescue service has saved 377 Ukrainians since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Alex Platt/CNN

Benga says many of the men aren’t equipped with the necessary gear to make it through such steep ravines and knee-deep snow, and they risk succumbing to injury or exhaustion.

“They would rather die on the mountains trying to escape than in the war,” Benga told CNN. He refuses to judge them. “We don’t know, actually, what is going on in their mind, in their soul. … Our job is full of empathy for humanity.”

It’s a risky job that nearly cost the 57-year-old his own life one Christmas Eve. He got stuck on a mountain during a snowstorm for five days in 2022 and was declared missing by authorities. His wife and three kids were told to prepare for the worst.

But Benga pushed on. He says he carried a Ukrainian man on his back for 14 hours until the rescuers finally reached them. Benga became visibly emotional recounting that day – the dangers of his job and the toll that can take on his family weigh heavily on him.

One Ukrainian man who requested anonymity out of concern for his safety told CNN that being rescued was “an indescribable feeling.”

“I had goosebumps all over my body. Waiting for the rescuers was like waiting for a miracle,” he added.

For those who can afford it, paying a smuggler can be tempting. Some of them openly advertise their services on social media. “Artem,” who has more than 4,000 followers on TikTok claims he can facilitate a crossing into Romania for $14,000.

“We rescue people who just want to live, to build their future,” he told CNN in an interview. “I help people, I save people,” likening it to a lifesaving service.

“Artem” explained that bribing Ukrainian authorities including border guards to look the other way is key to succeeding. Once the fugitive makes it out of the country, he says his team guides them online from afar.

“We transport people directly to the border and then they just take a short walk for 300 to 400 meters, and they’re already in Romania,” he said.

An aerial view over the Carpathian Mountains, a range extending through several European countries.
Alex Platt/CNN

A CNN journalist posed as a Ukrainian man seeking information about the smuggling process on Telegram, discussing cost and logistics directly with two other people who claimed they could facilitate an escape. They also mentioned bribing the guards.

The smuggling crew takes you “straight to the concertina wire on motorcycles,” one smuggler told CNN. “Cross the concertina quickly. Move 100 meters deep into Romania, and once in a safe place, send the payment to the crypto wallet.”

Ukraine’s State Border Service told CNN it has a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption. “Our internal security service is actively working to expose any cases of illegal activities, and we always publicly report the detention of our employees, if such cases occur,” spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said.

“Those who are found committing such offenses are held accountable in accordance with current legislation,” he said, adding that “allegations voiced by illegal groups that violate the law must be supported by evidence. Otherwise, it may simply be slander.”

Some men caught trying to leave the country illegally have reported being mobilized shortly afterwards. The decision to avoid the front line is widely seen as shameful in Ukraine, which has fought a defensive war against its much larger and nuclear-armed neighbor.

For taxi driver Pinkhasov, who made it across by himself earlier this month, it was worth it. He has since reunited with his five-month-old daughter in Switzerland.