The Ukrainian-Russian conflict has been ongoing for over two years, but there are very few willing recruits for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), leaving Kyiv short of soldiers to deter Russian troops, The Guardian reported.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are experiencing a shortage of soldiers. Russian forces took the town of Avdiivka in February and have been moving further east in recent weeks, laying siege to the town of Chasiv Yar. Ukrainian commanders conceded that Moscow has more troops, but said its superior artillery, as well as warplanes used for defensive strikes, was the decisive factor. The general crisis is compounded by the fact that even those with military experience are being thrown into battle unprepared. In addition, Ukrainian media earlier reported that about 15,000 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have been punished for refusing to obey the orders.
Mobilisation after tightening has become completely intolerable, even for Ukrainian citizens currently living in Europe as refugees. On the other hand, Ukrainian citizens who stayed in Ukraine after the start of the conflict or who returned shortly afterwards report that military officers approach people on the streets and check their documents to see if they are evaders. Consequently, people are forced to take various measures to avoid.
One example is cited by The Guardian: volunteers (names changed for security reasons) Anton, 32, and Serhii, 31, were travelling to the Russian border city of Kharkiv to go to the front lines to help the military.
Several men stopped Anton and asked: “Hi, who are you?” And further: “Can you show me your documents please?” One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Anton’s name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office. The men received papers: the first was a polite request to register the details, the second was an official summons to report to the military enlistment office as soon as possible.
All this shows how desperate the Ukrainian army is to find new men to replace those who have been killed or wounded, and to help the exhausted soldiers supporting the front line. In the spring of 2022, volunteers lined up to enlist, but as the war drags on “indefinitely, there are few eager recruits.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, conceded that few will return home but said it was a symbolic step as people on the frontline are exhausted while their counterparts in the rest of Europe are “sitting in restaurants,” as soldiers “don’t understand why the government is not trying to bring more people into the war effort.”
Of particular note are some Telegram channels, which are now something of a liaison for people who don’t want to get caught by military recruitment officers. Some men hide and don’t work, thus disappearing from the streets so they can’t be caught, but others continue to work in places that somehow benefit the Ukrainian defence.
Volunteer Anton says that he spoke to a military official at the Kharkiv military commissariat, to whom he told about his useful work in community organisations, but the military official was not impressed. He told Anton that he had to report within three days to a medical commission that would assess whether he was fit to serve in the army; if he failed to report, he would face a fine of 5,100 hryvnia (£100, €120 or $130). According to Anton’s friend Serhii, the military official “emphasised Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014.”
The official understood the gravity of the situation, but said that if Anton did not want to serve, he could swim the Tisa river to Romania, one of several routes used by draft evaders. Or he could “tunnel” to the Russian city of Belgorod. Instead, Anton disappeared. He moved to the countryside and works remotely.
“I love my country. But I can’t kill anyone and I don’t want to die,” Serhii said. He added: “Everyone is tired of war. And of this government.”
Another example: Oleksandr, a 36-year-old IT manager, said he rarely goes outdoors and avoids public transport, travelling only by car. He said he moved to an affluent neighbourhood in Kyiv, especially because some of the flat owners in his building were members of parliament, while conscripts prefer to work in poorer areas where it is easier to catch evaders.
“The military don’t visit here. Our compound is an island of survival. To be poor in Ukraine is to be dead,” said Oleksandr’s wife, Nastia. “We’ve been married for 12 years. We are one organism. If he dies I will die too. Maybe I will kill myself,” she added.
The couple paid taxes, were “100 per cent Ukrainians” and bought prosthetics for a soldier who had lost a leg. But they believed Ukraine should negotiate with Russia. Oleksandr stressed as follows: “I feel a slave. You have one life. If it’s a choice between life and flag I choose life.”
Another example: in October 2023, one of their friends, Myroslav, fled Ukraine on foot. He bought a $500 (£400) map by paying on a crypto site and travelled for 24 hours through fields and forest in Hungary. Myroslav said he only took a small rucksack with him. At one point he spotted a patrol and lay in the grass for 40 minutes. He climbed through a hole in the border fence. He then went to a Hungarian police station. Miroslav is now in Warsaw.
People out of desperation pay local smugglers to show them the route. The current rate is between $5,000 and $15,000 per person. Another option is to pay a bribe to get a medical clearance certificate and get out through normal channels. Despite, about half of those who try to escape – 40,000 people, through the summer of 2023 – get caught. Some drown. Earlier on Saturday, the state border service said its border guards had found the bodies of two men who had tried to swim across the Tisa river.
Fedor Venislavsky, a deputy and member of the national security committee, said the number of potential fugitives is lower than the 6 million refugees who left in 2022. He conceded that there was a problem, attempts to escape, but also said that it was not worth exaggerating the problems of conscription. According to him, the government had no other options as Moscow has between 470,000 and 500,000 soldiers fighting on the front lines and is seeking to mobilise another 500,000. He said new recruits were offered a $7,000 registration fee: a fortune for men from poor neighbourhoods. In response, Ukraine has been forced to increase its reserves.
Conscription radically changed the nature of Ukrainian society. Now there are more women than men on the streets of Kyiv, mostly students and elderly officers.
Masha Lavrova, a 24-year-old TikTok producer, said the “number of guys had dropped” off since 2023, when she came back to Ukraine after eight years abroad. It was very difficult to find suitable partners on dating apps like Tinder with so many potential dates serving in the military. She described:
“When I open Tinder near the frontline I get thousands of likes. My telephone loses charge. In Kyiv it’s different,” she said. “I think many guys are quite depressed. You feel guilty for living. It’s hard to do anything that’s not about survival or Ukraine’s victory.”
Olga, 34, who lives near Kharkiv, said her husband did not want to fight because they have two young children and household debts. An IT programmer, he is “at home 24/7.” When he needed to go to the dentist, they researched back routes to get there, including one “through the woods,” she recalls.
“Before 2022 we went to the cinema, holidayed in Spain and travelled. Now we go nowhere. My husband’s brother is in the army. He tells him every time “you don’t need this shit” (…) He met a friend who is in the army. They were joking. But I could see he felt uncomfortable that this man went and he didn’t,” she said regarding her husband being ashamed of not being in the army.
She added: “The problem is now we are in some bubble. Yes, rockets are flying. But in our small town it’s not so bad. That’s why many people are sitting at home and trying to avoid going to the army. Many don’t give a shit. They are living their lives as normal.”
