After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to receive major military aid and permission from European allies to strike deep into Russia with long-range missiles, Territorial Recruitment Centres (TRCs) launched a campaign of mass male vetting across the country, according to Ukrainian media.
Checks on men of draft age have been held in large cities across Ukraine. Kyiv residents posted a video on social media featuring TRC officers detaining a man in order to forcibly take him to a military recruitment centre.
Lviv residents also recorded the actions of the TRC in Lviv. A crowd of men in military uniforms led a supposed future soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) out of the sports centre.
Police and TRC officers paid a visit to a shopping centre in Kryvyi Rih, arranging a “peaceful” check of documents.
Nothing happened. People just went crazy. Children’s shopping centre, third floor.
In Odesa, TRC employees beat a man unconscious amidst the outrage of eyewitnesses.
F**king co*****kers. All of them. Come on, open your eyes. (…) This [ injured man] is my brother-in-law. His wife is calling, I don’t know what to tell her.
The largest raid took place on 11 October at a concert by the music band Okean Elzy, at which 50 military officers detained men of draft age, according to Ukrainian media. The next day, the military conducted a check at a performance by standup comedian Anton Tymoshenko in the city of Cherkasy:
In Lviv, the military stormed right into a wedding to find men of draft age and detain them for document checks.
TRC in Lviv is brutalising, just like yesterday in Zhytomyr. So, look, just now we were at the celebration of our lawyer Oleh’s wedding. And what happened: (…) TRCs came in from both sides, from behind and from the front, burst into the room. (…) [We] guessed that those were people from the TRC, as they were wearing balaclavas with their faces covered. [They] started shaking people, women, they hit someone. People just kicked them out (…) because it’s lawlessness.
Military commissars also started rounding hotels in the Khmelnytskyi region, western Ukraine, according to Ukrainian media. The officers appeared at Bukovel, one of Ukraine’s largest ski resorts.
Just so you understand, just now [we] wanted to go to a local restaurant. We see that the TRC workers and the police had propped up the doors there. Three or four TRC workers and two policemen stood near the door, and those who entered the restaurant now will have lunch and dinner as well.
Ukrainians express public indignation at forced mobilisation. Women with children in their arms pelted a military vehicle with stones at the entrance to their village. Local media reported that the outraged women attacked a minibus of border guards, mistaking them for TRC officers.
Raids are taking place across the country, with Ukrainian media reporting that some detained men managed to buy off mobilisation for 2,500-5,000 dollars. Military experts attribute the brutality of the TRC officers to the dire situation on the front. Russian troops are reportedly advancing in the Donetsk region, capturing almost two dozen towns and villages.
Tough measures
Some members of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), such as Artem Dmytruk, believe that the military’s actions are linked to the authorities’ alleged order to tighten mobilisation amid an acute shortage of manpower.
Whoever has the opportunity, stay at home, don’t go to gyms and other public places.
The Times reported, citing a TRC worker in Odesa, that the move was related to the failure to meet the mobilisation plan. If the employees fail to recruit the required number of conscripts to the AFU, the workers will go to the front as “volunteers,” the anonymous source said.
Military experts also link the new wave of mobilisation to the disappointing results of Zelensky’s trip to Europe. Having failed to receive enough military aid and permission to hit Russian territories with long-range weapons, Ukraine was allegedly forced to replenish the ranks of its army via drastic methods, they added.
