MOSCOW, February 1 /TASS/. Military recruiters in Ukraine are setting up roadblocks in Kiev and the Kiev Region and breaking into residential buildings in their desperate search to snare draft evaders in their dragnet, eyewitnesses told TASS.
"The situation with the mobilization is catastrophic. Military recruiters are blocking roads, they are already conducting house-to-house searches in our village [in the Kiev Region] looking for draft evaders, and they are using thermal cameras and drones," a source told TASS. "Well, it's good that all the money people chipped in [as donations for the Ukrainian military] went for all this advanced equipment. Now in return we are getting such gratitude from the military," he remarked sarcastically.
People targeted by the recruiters’ dragnet have even resorted to building rough dugout shelters in the woods, another resident of the region said. "Although it's already become problematic to stay in such a shelter," he admitted.
The source also pointed out that every day he sees two to three dead people being brought to his village from the line of engagement and hospitals. "It's scary to imagine how many dead there are already," he added.
A general mobilization was announced in Ukraine in February 2022 and has been extended several times since then, with the country's authorities doing everything possible to prevent draft age men from evading military service. In particular, they are forbidden from traveling abroad, and draft orders are issued in government offices, on the street, and in all public places where large numbers of people gather.
Mobilization has already led to numerous scandals and has increased tensions in society. While military conscription officers often use coercion and outright violence against citizens, and even those unfit for service are subject to being forcibly drafted, many Ukrainian lawmakers and officials evade mobilization and secrete their draft ago sons abroad to escape being sent to fight. Nevertheless, in December 2023, President Vladimir Zelensky said that the military command had sent a request for another 500,000 people to be drafted into the armed forces. In response, the government began drafting a law on new mobilization rules.