Can Ukrainians identify as female and leave the country?

“Ukraine men ordered to stay and fight Russia as others flee” (New York Post, 2/25/2022):

Ukraine announced late Thursday that men between the ages of 18 and 60 were forbidden from leaving the nation, which has been under martial law since the start of the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian authorities “were nice, not rude, but they said that men have a duty to defend the country,” said Erzsebet Kovacs, 50, at a train station.

I asked a Ukrainian-American friend whether this was a practical obstacle. “Why can’t anyone who wants to leave say ‘I identify as a woman’?” He responded, “It’s another example of male privilege. The border agents would probably shoot you in the balls.”

He speaks and reads Russian and travels regularly to Ukraine, yet in early January 2022 he estimated the chance of an invasion at only 10 percent, upping his risk assessment somewhat after Joe Biden hinted that a “minor incursion” would be tolerated (NBC). His U.S.-educated child: “This war makes me realize how trivial are the concerns that we’re taught to worry about in [public] school. The microaggressions, the gender pay gap, and Covid. What’s really important is where to hide money and how to get food.”

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8 thoughts on “Can Ukrainians identify as female and leave the country?

  1. “I asked a Ukrainian-American friend whether this was a practical obstacle. “Why can’t anyone who wants to leave say ‘I identify as a woman’?”

    This was attempted by a character in M*A*S*H (TV series) – Wikipedia, but it didn’t work.

    And even if attempted in a modern war zone when there isn’t overwhelming high tech military dominance, he/she/they (anyone with facial hair or any other masculine features) would be subject to the Catch-22

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22

    “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to, but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (p. 56, ch. 5)

  2. There’s an old Soviet saying (referring to anti-semitic tendencies of the worker class and the 5th field (ethnicity) in the Soviet passports): бить будут не по паспорту, а по морде (it’s not the passport which will get beaten, but your face).

    That said, I have a friend, an Ukrainian-American tech manager who went to UA a few days ago, to help his Ukrainian team. Then the war flared up* and the UA clown government declated draft of every male frm 16 to 60. He got busy evacuating his team from Kiev, and meanwhile the UA govt declared him a deserter since he missed showing up for the draft. I hope he will manage to hide long enough for the war to end.

    * to those unaware the war in UA has been going on since 2014, shelling of cities and villages by the army artillery, over a million refugees, etc. Nobody in the West gave a s*t until Bloody Putin who is Hitler Reincarnated said enough is enough (his approval rating immediately jumped from 55% to 71%).

    • averros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas is what you’re referring to? And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbas#Displaced_population are the refugees? Web statistics suggest that you’re correct about nobody in the West caring. “war in donbas” yields 363,000 English-language results from the Google, many of them seemingly recent references. “climate change” yields 271 million results. “lgbtq” yields 143 million results. “black lives matter” yields 48 million.

    • Yep, that one. A conflict in which the government for years used army and artillery against people it claims as their citizens

      In fact, it takes a lot to get civilians to raise up in an outright armed resistance againt their government in the first place. So make your own conclusions wrt to merits of that government.

  3. sounds like a blonde wig and red lipstick, when there is shoulders wider than hips and hairy legs won’t meet the necessity and sufficiency requirements to sit out conscription from either army.

  4. This is an excellent time to remind people that according to Google white males in Ukraine are privileged and must be fired if they question highly paid CRT consultants:

    https://www.foxnews.com/media/google-employee-fired-questioning-equity-training-tucker

    All of a sudden, Google sends “help” (mostly thoughts and prayers) to such a patriarchal and racist country:

    https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/helping-ukraine/

    “The invasion of Ukraine is quickly creating a devastating humanitarian crisis. Over 1.2 million Ukrainians have already fled their homes, according to data from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the UN has warned that number may rise to 5 million people [i.e., mostly women and children, the privileged fired engineer would have had to fight!] in the coming weeks and months.”

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