Ukraine’s enlistment strategy has come under fire due to local government involvement in conscription as well as the introduction of electronic summons notices.
But Ukrainians have also described the aggressive tactics used by enlistment officers to try and recruit men.
President Zelensky even had to dismiss regional enlistment office heads in August 2023 because of cases of abuse and corruption.
Speaking to the Kyiv Independent, Mykhailo, a 31-year-old from Chernivsti, described being pressured to join the army.
He said: “I don’t go out onto the street at all. I remember someone saying that if you don’t join the army, have some respect, don’t go hanging out at cafes, restaurants ski resorts, and so on.
“I understand how it limits me, but if I were to walk around the city, the kind of things that the recruiting officers are doing could happen to me too.
“From the perspective of ordinary people, it is scary; when you have these ‘assaults’ of shopping centers and so on, sometimes in masks… why are they hiding their faces? It just looks like pure kidnapping of people to be honest.”
“Maybe I would be ready to go to the medical commission if I could be sure that they would take my physical conditions into account, and not just say ‘You’re fine’ and put me on, for example, a machine gun, because that would be certain death.”
Despite the reservations of many Ukrainians, military-political analyst and co-founder of the Information Resistance project, Oleksandr Kovalenko, says increased conscription is “inevitable.”
He said: “It’s not a conflict of interests, it’s a conflict of worldviews.
“The military understands very well what war is and how it could end for the country, while many civilians have gotten used to this new ordinary life, and they don’t want to face the reality that everyone needs to be ready to fight.
“A lot of people don’t quite understand the need for mobilisation, maybe they think that the war is far away and they (the military) can manage fine. They don’t think about what could happen to the country if they don’t manage.”
