Ukrainian military recruiters launched targeted raids on local restaurants, shopping malls and at a rock concert this weekend, arresting men and forcibly conscripting them into the army.
“Get away from me!” » shouted a spectator at three police officers as they dragged him towards a recruitment office set up on Friday outside the Place des Sports, where the Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy was playing.
The man’s face contorted in fear as he strained and fired at the officers, video footage showed. Several women filmed the police on their smartphones and shouted: “Shame! Shame on you!”
Police also reportedly waited to intercept men at Goodwine, a nearby shopping center, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.
Eyewitnesses said police checked all of the men’s documents. Men who refused to present documents exempting them from military service or whose documents were considered defective were taken away.
Under Ukraine’s martial laws, all men aged 25 to 60 can enlist in the army. Men aged 18 to 60 are also prohibited from leaving the country.
Faced with a serious shortage of soldiers, Ukraine reduced the mobilization age from 27 to 25 and in April closed a “only partially eligible” gap. Penalties were also increased for men who failed to appear when summoned.
Ukraine has also followed Russia in mobilizing its prison population.
Western intelligence analysts estimate Russian losses at more than 650,000 troops. Data on Ukraine’s war losses have not been published, but their losses are estimated to be a third or a quarter of those of Russia.
Fatigue and fear of being killed on the front lines have sapped Ukrainians’ enthusiasm for engaging in a war that has now lasted more than two and a half years.
Oleksandr Danylyuk, a research associate at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said: “Mobilization began to be seen as a one-way ticket, where the only way to end service is to die or become disabled. »
Some men are so desperate to escape mobilization that they risk their lives to flee Ukraine.
In April, Ukraine’s Border Guard Service said at least 30 men had died trying to flee the country since the war began, often drowning while trying to swim across fast-flowing rivers or dying from cold in mountain passes.
Russian forces are making slow but steady advances along the front lines in Ukraine, but on Saturday evening Volodymyr Zelenksy, the president, said Ukrainian forces had secured the front line in Russia’s Kursk region, which was invaded by Ukraine in August.
Prosecutors also said they were investigating the alleged killing of nine Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces in Kursk. They were reportedly stripped naked before being shot.
