Russia-Ukraine war: University students grapple with rules under conflict

Under wartime government rules, no man aged between 18 and 60 can leave Ukraine without special permission from the authorities.

That means male students who decide to study in Ukraine cannot travel abroad until the war is over. And while currently, students are exempt from being drafted into the army, those rules could change if Ukraine suddenly needs more men.

It also means male students thinking of studying abroad have to leave before they turn 18: crucially, they are unable to return home to visit without then risking getting stuck inside their own borders.

Russia's war is opening a gender divide in Ukrainian society.

Liza fled west when Russia launched its assault on Ukraine last year and settled eventually in Germany.

She's now planning to study sciences in the southern city of Konstanz there, on the border with Switzerland, after she's passed a mandatory German language course.

The 17-year-old has returned home briefly to Kyiv to prepare for university.

"I'm relying on the chance to buy something in Germany because they've got more shops open - many shops I liked in Kyiv closed," she says. "But it's more expensive there. So I'll thrift in Kyiv before I go!"

Liza says that of her 32 classmates at school in Ukraine, half have chosen to study abroad - both boys and girls. She says the male students in her year have accepted the rules.

"It's not even discussed. Boys don't blame anyone, they understand it's the rules and they should be obeyed," she says. "But they try also to leave - they're [just] 16, 17, 18 years old."

Misha, 17, struggled this year to decide where to apply.

"You have a lot more opportunities [elsewhere] in Europe," he says. "You have a lot more nightlife. For a 17-year-old guy like me, I want to have some crazy stuff going on - I know in Kyiv the only thing I can do after midnight is stay at home, because of the curfew."

But ultimately he realized he couldn't leave his family and his friends.