How Ukraine’s conscription squads are forcing men to fight in the war

Ukrainian men are increasingly encountering mobilisation squads who are forcibly recruiting individuals from public places such as buses and bars, and dragging them to enlistment centres. The ongoing war with Russia has resulted in significant casualties, compelling the Ukrainian government to adopt stricter measures to find new recruits.

In April this year, Ukraine lowered its draft eligible age from 27 to 25 to replenish its depleted ranks. The new laws, which eliminated some draft exemptions and created an online registry for recruits, are adding around 50,000 troops to the military, Mirror UK quoted Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst with the Center for United Actions, a government watchdog in Kyiv.

As of October 2023, the Ukrainian military had nearly 800,000 troops, excluding National Guard or other units. In total, one million Ukrainians are in uniform, including about 300,000 who are serving on front lines.

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However, conscription remains a sensitive matter amid Ukraine’s growing shortages of infantry and ammunition, which have allowed Russia to maintain the battlefield initiative. Despite Russia’s own issues with manpower and planning, Ukraine struggles to find new recruits, leading to drastic measures.

How has this impacted Ukrainian citizens?

In Odesa, fear of mobilisation squads is rampant, with people being plucked from public areas including bars and transport. At the main train station, 12 conscription officers were reported by the BBC to have checked people’s papers to determine their eligibility to fight. Most men they found were either too young or had exemptions.

Anatoliy, one of the officers, admitted the difficulty in finding eligible recruits. “Some people run away from us. This happens quite often,” he said. “Others react quite aggressively. I don’t think these people have been brought up well."

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Maksym, a man with a pregnant wife and young daughter, avoided attending a wedding for fear of being enlisted, reported Mirror UK. He described the conscription officers as “bandits.” “I feel like I am in prison,” he said, adding, “There are more than a million police officers in Ukraine, why should I fight when they are not?” Another man waiting at an enlistment centre claimed he had been “kidnapped” and forced to come after being “encircled” by officers.

Vlad, an officer at the centre who had fought in fierce battles in the Donbas region before being injured by shrapnel, expressed contempt for those avoiding conscription. “I don’t consider them men. What are they waiting for? If we run out of men, the enemy will come to their homes, rape their women, and kill their children," he said.

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The average soldier’s age on both sides is over 40, military analysts say. Some Ukrainians worry that lowering the minimum conscription age to 25 and taking more young adults out of the workforce could backfire by further harming the war-ravaged economy.

Antonina Piliuhina, a 49-year-old Kyiv mother of a 21-year-old son, opposed lowering the draft age. “I have just one son, I am a single mother,” Piliuhina said. “What did I raise him for all these years, for him to be taken away and then killed by someone for fun? I don’t need this.”

Mykola Petrovskyi, a 28-year-old social worker, voiced his reluctance to fight. “I am not ready to go somewhere tomorrow and kill people,” he said. “It’s not because I’m not a patriot of my country, it’s because I am not ready to kill. I am not born for this. I am a person who’s ready to help save someone’s life, but not take one.”

Zelenskyy looks to convicts

In a bid to strengthen Ukraine’s forces, Zelenskyy, in May, signed a law allowing the recruitment of prisoners into the military. Prisoners released for military service will fight in separate units, though some commanders prefer integrated units.

Dmytro Kukharchuk, who recruits strong and motivated prisoners, told Dagen News, “When you join us, you join a family.” He believes they should fight alongside regular soldiers to foster unity and effectiveness.

The new law allows conditional early release for prisoners who enlist. Nearly 100 prisoners from a central Ukrainian prison have already signed contracts to join various military units.

The law excludes individuals convicted of severe crimes, such as national security offenses and violent crimes. Since the law’s enactment, around 5,000 prisoners have applied to join the army, with nearly 2,000 passing medical exams and being released.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska highlighted that many prisoners see this as a chance to shed the “ex-prisoner” label and rebuild their lives. “There are certainly risks,” Maliuska said, “but the morale and spirit of those released from prison are much higher than those who were mobilised off the street.”

Commanders recognise the risks but believe the program offers a unique opportunity for rehabilitation and patriotism. “In Ukraine, motivation is largely based on patriotism,” Maliuska added.

Ukraine also restricts passport renewals

As Ukraine works to get much-needed arms from a substantial U.S. aid package to the front line, its government is seeking to reverse the drain of its potential soldiers. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers announced that men between 18 and 60 years old who are deemed fit for military service will no longer be able to renew passports from outside Ukraine.

Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, mostly to neighbouring European countries. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, has reported that 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in EU countries, 860,000 of them men 18 years of age or older.

This move has met with some criticism inside Ukraine. Ukrainian Opposition lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, who heads the Parliamentary Committee for Ukraine’s European Integration, said denying military-age men access to consular services could lead to “well-founded” legal challenges at the European Court of Human Rights.

Oleksandr Pavlichenko, executive director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, argued that the measure was a violation of individual rights and unlikely to succeed in getting Ukrainian men to return home from abroad, reported AP.

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Ukraine is in dire need of fresh troops to bolster forces in the south and east, where Russia is pressing forward with its efforts to take ground from outnumbered and outgunned troops.

With inputs from agencies