As Russia continues its full-scale military invasion into Ukraine, the Ukrainian government announced on Thursday that all Ukrainian men ages 18 through 60 will be barred from leaving the country, as announced by Ukraine’s Interior Ministry of Defense.
The official message from the government reads:
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports that due to the imposition of martial law in Ukraine, the departure of a certain category of citizens from Ukraine is temporarily restricted.
In particular, male citizens of Ukraine aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine.
Such a rule will apply for the period of martial law.
We ask citizens to take this information into account.
The news comes as the Ukrainian government began actively supplying firearms to any citizens who wanted to fight Russian troops, The Daily Wire reported on Thursday:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday morning that he would give weapons to anyone who wanted to defend the country from the full-scale Russian invasion that was launched during the early morning hours, which came at approximately the same time that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that a “special military operation” was underway.
Putin told Ukrainian soldiers to give up and go home while threatening the U.S. and NATO that if they intervene, “Russia will respond immediately, and you will have consequences that you never have had before in your history.”
“We will give weapons to anyone who wants to defend the country. Be ready to support Ukraine in the squares of our cities,” Zelensky said in a statement. “We will lift sanctions on all citizens of Ukraine who are ready to defend our country as part of territorial defense with weapons in hands.”
On Wednesday, Ukraine began drafting citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 for the then-pending war effort.
Ukraine has also called upon all international partners to assist in their defense against Russia. On Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden announced a number of economic sanctions on Russia aimed at crippling their economy and ability to modernize their military. Some of those sanctions can be found below, as reported by The Daily Wire:
Severing the connection to the U.S. financial system for Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, including 25 subsidiaries, by imposing correspondent and payable-through account sanctions.
Full blocking sanctions on Russia’s second largest financial institution, VTB Bank (VTB), including 20 subsidiaries. Full blocking sanctions on three other major Russian financial institutions: Bank Otkritie, Sovcombank OJSC, and Novikombank- and 34 subsidiaries.
New debt and equity restrictions on thirteen of the most critical major Russian enterprises and entities. This includes restrictions on all transactions in, provision of financing for, and other dealings in new debt of greater than 14 days maturity and new equity issued by thirteen Russian state-owned enterprises and entities: Sberbank, AlfaBank, Credit Bank of Moscow, Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Rostelecom, RusHydro, Alrosa, Sovcomflot, and Russian Railways.