(Dan Tri) – Ukrainian military recruitment officers have begun using strong measures such as confiscating passports in the context that the country needs additional troops for the war, which is about to enter the second year, according to the New York Times.
Soldiers of the Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces on armored vehicles during exercises near Kiev on July 13, 2022 (Photo: Getty).
In some cases, military recruitment officers arrested people on the streets, threatened or even used force to bring them to recruitment centers, according to the New York Times.
This practice not only targets those who avoid the draft but also targets those who are normally exempt from military service.
`There is arbitrariness here,` a 58-year-old Ukrainian taxi driver told the New York Times in an article published on December 15.
The driver from the Ukrainian city of Kitsman said that army recruiters confiscated his passport and only returned it when he had a medical examination a few days later.
Locals say recruitment officers at Kitsman have a reputation as `snatchers`.
The New York Times said they spoke with more than 20 lawyers, activists, soldiers, conscripts and relatives of conscripts about the strong-arm approach of military recruitment officers.
Lawyers and activists say the heavy-handed tactics – which reportedly include the use of force – exceed the limits of military recruiters’ authority and are clearly illegal in some cases.
Like other countries, the Ukrainian army will waive service in certain cases, such as people with disabilities or illnesses.
But the New York Times said they discovered at least one case of Ukrainian military recruitment officials trying to send Hryhorii Harasym – a 36-year-old mentally disabled man taking medication for depression – to training.
After being concluded that he was eligible to perform military service with some restrictions, Harasym was called up to enlist.
`They drafted into the army a person who had been officially diagnosed as ‘mentally disabled’ since childhood,` Tetiana Fefchak, the lawyer who blocked Harasym’s military call-up, told the New York Times.
Some Ukrainian men have gone to court to appeal what they say is a wrongful military call-up or forced mobilization.
In November alone, Ukrainian courts issued more than 200 decisions related to military conscription, according to the New York Times.
An army recruitment advertisement in western Ukraine (Photo: New York Times).
In response to accusations of forced military service, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said: `The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) is studying amending the law related to the mobilization and demobilization process.`
If those regulations are approved, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense `will study the approved standards,` the statement said.
The Ukrainian army has suffered heavy losses on the battlefield since Russia launched a `special military operation` in the country in February 2022.
In August, US officials estimated that 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and up to 120,000 wounded in the conflict.
US intelligence estimates that Russia had up to 350,000 soldiers killed and wounded in the conflict.
When the conflict broke out, Kiev banned men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country and began several military recruits.
