Ukrainian recruiters are reportedly roaming the streets of the country in a desperate effort to bolster the ranks of the military as the war with Russia continues to sap the native population.
A report from the Times of London claimed that tactics to increase the number of soldiers have become “increasingly deceitful, coercive and violent” as Kyiv attempts to increase the number of mobilized men by around 200,000 to press on with the fight against Russia.
Speaking anonymously to the British paper of record, a conscription officer from the city of Odesa said that some of his colleagues are often turning to illegal methods, including physically grabbing men off the streets to send them to fight even if they are exempt from conscription.
“These incidents damage the image of the whole organisation, but this is the way it works, because we are given orders to show results, to be efficient,” the conscription officer said.
In one instance, conscription officers fought with ambulance staff after a medic was prevented from leaving a recruitment centre after he attempted to update his exemption documents.
In another example cited by the paper, an Odesa man named Sacha was told by police that he needed to go to the conscription office to update his identity documents. Although he suffered from a chronic kidney condition and was therefore exempt from fighting, his neighbours said that he never returned from the office, saying that “he was tricked” and had been sent to a military training base in Kyiv.
The Times reported that there are “near-daily reports and videos” of men being rounded up from the streets of Odesa and put onto unmarked busses by roaming “conscription squads”. The paper noted that there is even a Telegram group with nearly 150,000 men used to give warnings about the location of the ‘recruitment’ busses.
Even still, the conscription officer in Odesa said that his department is not even coming close to their recruitment targets, saying: “We’re not mobilising even 20 per cent of what is required.”
He blamed a combination of corruption, disillusionment, and mismanagement for failing to recruit more men, arguing that the systemic issues have made it “impossible to complete our goals”.
Odesa, historically one of the wealthier cities in Ukraine, was a hotbed for corruption at the outset of the conflict, with affluent families paying off local officials to keep their relatives out of the war.
While President Zelensky last year vowed to clamp down on corruption, and the government arrested and charged the former head of recruitment in Odesa, Yevhen Borysov for allegedly taking over $5 million in bribes, the unnamed conscription officer said that the issues continue to persit to this day. He said that his fellow staff members are still taking large bribes to forge exemption documents.
The issue facing recruiters in the country is compounded by a lack of fit men to take up arms, with the conscription officer noting that often over half of those coming forward to join the fight have diseases such as hepatitis, HIV, or tuberculosis, thereby making them ineligible for the military.
The Odesa official suggested more NATO oversight of Ukraine’s conscription policies and raising the salary of soldiers, but warned, “If nothing changes… we’re going to stay stuck in this stalemate.”
