An Israeli father of six who traveled to Uman for Rosh Hashanah was detained at Ukraine's border with Romania on his way home and taken for service in the Ukrainian army, his family and friends say.
Yonatan Karlinsky Mashak, 49, a Breslov Hasid and yeshiva student from Beitar Illit, was stopped last Wednesday afternoon at the Orlivka-Isaccea crossing, a ferry crossing over the Danube River between southern Ukraine's Odessa region and Romania. He was born in Ukraine and immigrated to Israel about 14 years ago, where he became religious later in life.
Karlinsky was traveling on a bus with other pilgrims and carrying an Israeli passport listing the Soviet Union as his place of birth. According to a friend who was on the bus, border officials realized he also held Ukrainian citizenship after hearing him speak Ukrainian.
"He spoke to them in Ukrainian and was joking around with the soldiers there, and then they took him aside, checked him and discovered that he was required to enlist, and they simply detained him," a source familiar with the case told Yedioth Ahronoth.
He was removed from the bus and has not been heard from since. Shortly after his detention, he managed to send an email describing what had happened and tried to call his wife twice. When she called back, she reached only a Ukrainian voicemail message.
His wife, Odel, told Walla she was deeply distressed, in part because she missed both calls and only later understood that something was wrong. "I never imagined they had caught him," she said. "He traveled like he does every year, and never thought for a moment that this could happen."
A friend, Natan, said Karlinsky had made the pilgrimage for years, including since the war began, without any problem. "He probably thought that because he had Israeli citizenship, he would no longer have any issue in Ukraine," he said.
According to the family, Karlinsky is being held at a military base near Odessa as part of the enlistment process. The Haredi site Emess reported that community activists received information that he is undergoing training ahead of joining the ranks, and that he may have been flagged because he served in the Ukrainian army in his youth. Neither his exact location nor his military status has been officially confirmed.
Breslov community activists say they have hit a wall. "We are at a loss," one told Kikar HaShabbat. "We approached all the rabbis and activists in Ukraine, and no one has a solution for how to get him released." Activists told Emess that his release would likely require official government intervention.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has told the family it is working to determine his whereabouts.
Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and men between 25 and 60 can be mobilized. Ukrainian authorities generally treat dual citizens as Ukrainian nationals while they are inside the country, regardless of any foreign passport they hold.
Karlinsky is one of four Breslov Hasidim reported detained in separate incidents connected to this year's pilgrimage, which drew more than 65,000 people to Uman. The other three were held in Cyprus and Moldova.
For now, his wife says, the family is waiting. "As long as he's fit, from their perspective he's fit," she said. "Until age 60, they don't release people from the army. Right now things are up in the air, and we still don't know exactly what will happen or how we can help him."
