A disturbing pattern of escalating violence involving Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Centres (TRC, TCC) has emerged over recent months, with numerous documented cases showing military conscription officers using firearms, physical force, and tear gas against civilians.
The incidents, which range from fatal shootings to brutal beatings and home invasions, underscore the growing desperation and aggressive tactics being employed as Ukraine grapples with deepening mobilisation challenges.
In one of the most severe incidents, staff from a TRC in Kryvyi Rih shot and killed a man during an attempted forced mobilisation at the end of February. Local reports indicate that the conflict erupted between conscription officers and two men, believed to be father and son. While initial reports failed to specify which of the two died, a swift co-ordinated information campaign by pro-government outlets claimed the deceased had attacked an officer with a knife.
Earlier in the same month, on 8 February, police in the Dnipropetrovsk region announced the arrest of three TRC officers on suspicion of fatally beating a civilian. According to official police reports, a 55-year-old man died from head trauma just after midnight on 7 February. Law enforcement officers seized a vehicle containing traces of the victim’s blood, and the investigation concluded that the fatal injuries were inflicted by the three conscription officials.
Just weeks later, in another incident in Dnipro, local prosecutors charged two TRC employees with using force and tear gas against a minibus driver. While the TRC later claimed that the spray was actually used by the man they were attempting to extract from the vehicle, the incident added to the growing list of allegations regarding the excessive use of non-lethal weapons against civilians.
February also saw a series of violent confrontations in the Chernivtsi region, where TRC staff opened fire during a mobilisation drive in the village of Mamalyha on 19 February.
Earlier in the month, the Zhytomyr regional TRC issued its official version of a shooting incident in the village of Novohuivynske. In that case, the commission claimed that an officer fired a “noise device” and discharged a “precautionary shot into the ground” after a man wanted for outstanding charges became aggressive and was joined by other civilians. Despite this official statement, video footage of the incident suggests the shot was directed towards the civilians rather than the ground. An internal investigation was announced.
The violence has not been confined to adults. On 1 March in Odesa, TRC personnel confronted a group of schoolchildren, all aged about 15, demanding to see their documents. After the officers moved to a petrol station, the teenagers approached them to ask for identification in return. According to reports, the TRC officers immediately responded with verbal abuse and sprayed the minors with a pepper-based canister.
In a particularly egregious case in Lviv at the end of January, TRC officers beat and sprayed a war veteran who had previously been a prisoner of war. Local reports detail that the veteran, born in 2002, had his documents in order.
Following a verbal dispute during which he threw an object at the officers’ vehicle, the officers pursued him, knocked him to the ground, kicked him in the head, and deployed a spray canister before fleeing the scene.
The start of February also witnessed a home invasion in Lviv, where the TRC officers reportedly broke into an apartment and forcibly seized a man. According to the victim’s family, he was subsequently detained at another location where he was denied medical attention despite suffering a broken arm during the altercation.
Similar scenes of desperation were captured on camera later in the month, showing a man failing to escape TRC officers by falling onto the roadway directly in front of their vehicle.
Odesa has been a particular hotspot for such clashes. On 3 March, officers attacked a married couple, pinning the woman to the ground while forcing her husband into a van.
This followed the forcible conscription of a priest the previous day, who was pushed into a minibus after refusing to co-operate.
A separate incident on 26 February saw TRC officers open fire on a civilian who managed to break free and run away, shooting after him as he fled down a street.
The wave of confrontations highlights the increasingly aggressive posture of mobilisation officers as Ukraine struggles to meet its military manpower requirements. The regular use of firearms, pepper spray, and physical force against a wide cross-section of the population—including veterans, the elderly, and even minors—paints a stark picture of the mounting tensions between the state’s need for reinforcements and the public’s resistance to the draft.
