Nikolaj and David, whose real name is something else, are testifying in Kiev for the AFP news agency about the escape from Mariupol. About the fear of being sent back and ending up in prison, in Russia's attempt to prevent young men from leaving occupied territory.
According to human rights organizations and Ukrainian officials in exile, schools in occupied areas of Ukraine are helping the Russian army by compiling records of students to facilitate recruitment.
They have only one purpose – that every Ukrainian child becomes a Russian soldier in the future, says Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman.
Defending Russia
The principal of Nikolay and David's school called the students "future defenders of Russia," all under a new portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Nikolay and David were determined to resist.
It was just like: "What the hell? Defender of what?", recalls 19-year-old David.
When the drafts came, the two childhood friends decided to run away.
You can't make me fight against the Ukrainian army – it's my own, says Nikolay.
Over 46,000 Ukrainians from occupied territories have been drafted into the Russian army, according to unconfirmed Ukrainian data. Among them are 35,000 from Crimea, which was occupied in 2014.
David and Nikolaj gathered their savings, packed, and found transportation out of Mariupol.
I cried because I was leaving my hometown. But I had no choice, David remembers.
Interrogated for hours
At a checkpoint, the two were questioned separately by Russian security officers for about five hours. They were fingerprinted, their phones searched, and threatened with drugs being planted on them. If the purpose of the trip was not to get to Russia – which the boys claimed – they faced two years in prison.
"I sat there thinking this is the end, that they are sending us back," David says of the moment he was interrogated.
To their great relief, both were let through the checkpoint. A classmate who also wanted to flee, but lacked a passport, remained in Mariupol. He dares not visit the authorities for fear of being immediately summoned, David says.
He simply cannot escape, he says.
The coastal city of Mariupol in Ukraine was occupied by Russian forces in May 2022, after an 86-day, bloody siege. The Uppsala Conflict Database (UCDP) estimates the death toll at least 27,000.
During the siege, many residents took refuge in one of the city's theaters, which was subjected to an airstrike on March 16. According to the AP news agency, at least 600 people were killed.
The UN human rights office has estimated that up to 90 percent of the city's residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and 350,000 people are estimated to have been forced to leave the city.
Russia is now building new apartment complexes on top of the ruins to attract Russians to move to Mariupol.
