Violence during mobilization in Ukraine has intensified in the fifth year of war, with attacks on recruiters becoming regular. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
Vasyl Krupych, a soldier fighting for Ukraine, was attacked by his own countrymen last December while searching for draft dodgers. Two men ignored demands to show their documents and fled, and when his patrol gave chase, Krupych was badly beaten with a crowbar. He spent six weeks in hospital. "He broke my rib, I was lying there and couldn't breathe," the veteran recalled. "What did we fight for, if soldiers can now get beaten?"
Ukraine's military ombudswoman says such attacks are now "regular" and "a major problem." The latest National Police Service report recorded more than 600 assaults on recruitment officers. In April, several recruiters were stabbed, one fatally. In Lviv, some 200 protesters surrounded officers attempting to detain a suspected draft dodger and smashed and overturned their car. President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the violence.
His controversial decision to sack Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov means attempts to address the conscription crisis will stall. Opposition MP Oleksandr Honcharenko says the "brutal mobilisation" phase has begun. "These officers are hunting for people on the streets and sometimes using quite violent methods," the MP says. "Violence leads to violence. It's a huge problem and it's going to get worse."
Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner recorded more than 6,000 such complaints last year - double the 2024 tally. They include claims of abuse, unlawful detention, and poor conditions at recruitment centres. Kyrylo Ogdansky, a university professor exempt from the draft, was brutally beaten by recruiters in Dnipro last November. "One of them knocked the phone from my hand and two pushed me into the bus from behind. When I asked what's happening, one started to beat me to the head," Ogdansky says.