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recruiters trying to catch eligible men on the streets, in gyms, and in shopping malls....

Ukraine’s conscription drive ‘increasingly deceitful, coercive and violent’ – The Times
Kiev is resorting to dirty tactics in its efforts to bolster its troops, the British newspaper reports

Ukraine’s mobilization campaign is falling far short of targets, while the effort remains marred by violence, mistrust and rampant corruption, The Times reported on Thursday, citing local officials.

According to the paper, Kiev has so far called up about one million soldiers and plans to increase that number by another 200,000 by the end of the year, but that mark remains difficult to reach. Moreover, “efforts to boost conscription are becoming increasingly deceitful, coercive and violent,” the outlet noted, citing the example of an Odessa conscript who was technically exempt from the service due to a chronic kidney condition, but was lured to the conscription office and sent to a training base anyway.

An unnamed conscription officer in Odessa told The Times that “we’re not mobilizing even 20% of what is required.” He noted that there is little enthusiasm among potential soldiers to respond to the summons, while his department is plagued by corruption, mismanagement and disillusionment. The bribes, the officer, added, can reach thousands of dollars while staff shortage means that employees have to perform multiple duties at once, including patrolling the streets. In addition, employees are threatened with being sent to the front if they underperform.

In other cases, many of those who answer the mobilization call are often found to be unfit for service due to serious health conditions, including tuberculosis, hepatitis or HIV, the Times’ source said.

Meanwhile, a 47-year-old Ukrainian recalled that he was eager to be called up and go to the front early in the conflict, but was denied at the time, and now has no desire to do so. “Our government doesn’t support soldiers. They don’t have proper equipment and are forgotten about if they get injured,” the man explained.

Ukraine announced general mobilization in February 2022 shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, barring most men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country. This spring, faced with mounting losses, Kiev lowered the draft age from 27 to 25, and significantly tightened mobilization rules, obliging potential service members to report to conscription offices for “data validation,” which in practice often means a ticket to the front.

As Ukraine’s mobilization campaign intensified, so did draft evasion, filling social media with videos of recruiters trying to catch eligible men on the streets, in gyms, and in shopping malls, sometimes leading to clashes.

https://www.rt.com/russia/605228-ukraine-mobilization-violence-deceit/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

killed younger...

US officials are pressuring Kiev to lower the mobilization age, Ukrainian MP Roman Kostenko, who also serves as secretary of Kiev’s national security council, has claimed. The lawmaker said he agreed with the calls, and urged a reduction in the draft age from 25 to as young as 18.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky lowered the military eligibility threshold from 27 to 25 years of age in early 2024, following sustained heavy losses in the conflict with Russia.

In an interview with Lviv-based NTA TV on Friday, Kostenko claimed that members of the US Congress had contacted him to say, “Look, we are giving you weapons, and you say you don’t have men. How come you don’t draft people under 25?” The MP said he could cite Ukrainian law in response, but does not understand the rationale behind it.

“People have their arguments, say we’ll have a lost generation... I say, ‘Look, if they don’t want to go now and defend our nation, they are already a lost generation,’” Kostenko added.

“A person can run for parliament in our country and make decisions about complex policies at 21, and can only go to war at 25. Something is wrong here. I don’t know who invented that,” he said.

The 40-year-old MP is a military veteran and also has the rank of a colonel in Kiev’s security agency, the SBU.

Ukrainian military commanders have complained to Western journalists that the quality of reinforcements has dropped significantly since the conscription reforms. New recruits are poorly motivated, prone to desertion, and cannot be given battlefield tasks because they are barely trained, commanders have said.

There is ample evidence of conscription officers using force to snatch resisting Ukrainians in the street for mobilization. Some fighting-age men would rather risk their lives trying to flee the country illegally than stay and face the draft.

Kostenko lamented that the flow of volunteers to join the military has dried up since 2022, and that the country now receives “neither quantity nor quality” of new troops. “Somebody does not work hard enough,” he claimed, arguing it is the responsibility of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief and senior government officials to inspire the population.

Moscow has accused the US of waging a proxy war against Russia, which Washington will continue to fight “to the last Ukrainian” with the complicity of the government in Kiev.

https://www.rt.com/russia/605256-ukraine-draft-age-reduction/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.