Ukraine’s military recruiters have launched targeted raids in kyiv, detaining those whose documents do not comply and pressuring them to join the army.
Video footage captured the moment two men were dragged away by officers as they left the Sports Palace on Friday, where the Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy was playing.
One concertgoer could be seen struggling and yelling ‘Get away from me!’ at three police officers as they dragged him towards the recruitment counter set up outside the place.
A series of raids were reportedly carried out at restaurants, nightclubs, bars and a concert hall in the capital.
Those who refused to show documents exempting them from military service, or those whose documents were deemed defective, were dragged away.
In the video, the panicked man tries to free himself from the policeman’s grasp. Several women who filmed the incident on their smartphones were heard shouting: Shame on you! What a shame!’.
A man could be seen being dragged out of the Sports Palace on Friday by military recruiters.
Concertgoers stood and watched as police officers dragged the man away.
According to Ukraine’s martial laws, all men between 25 and 60 years old can enlist in the army. Men between 18 and 60 years old are also prohibited from leaving the country.
Due to a severe shortage of soldiers, Ukraine lowered its mobilization age from 27 to 25 and eliminated an “only partially eligible” loophole in April.
Volunteers in the military must meet certain criteria to be eligible, as well as pass medical and physical fitness exams.
In March 2023, it was revealed that foreign fighters who joined the Ukrainian military were not allowed to return home until the war ended.
Would-be recruits were hesitating at the Polish border after receiving contracts that effectively made them recruits, the Daily Mail previously revealed.
Several foreign fighters have been killed since the start of the war.
A former US Marine died while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces after the private security company he worked for sent him to war in April 2022.
The family of Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, of Orange County, New York, confirmed that the husband and father of a seven-month-old son had died in Ukraine fighting Russian forces.
People gathered in front of the Sports Palace where the Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy played.
People filmed the incident on their smartphones while some women could be heard shouting: Shame on you! What a shame!’
A man dressed in yellow is seen being dragged away by police officers (pictured)
In August 2023, a British volunteer was killed in action while fighting in Ukraine, his brother announced.
A U.S. Army veteran was also hit and killed by a mortar shell explosion while fighting Russian forces in Ukraine.
The telegraph reported that some Ukrainian men are so desperate to escape the mobilization that they are risking their lives to escape the country.
Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told the newspaper: “Mobilization has begun to be perceived as a one-way ticket, where the only way to finish service is to die or become disabled.”
In April, the Border Guard Service reported that at least 30 men had died trying to flee the country since the start of the war, often drowning while trying to swim across rivers of frozen death in mountain passes.
In January 2024, a YouGov poll found that 38 percent of under-40s in Britain would refuse to serve in the Armed Forces in the event of a new world war, and 30 percent said they would not serve even if Britain faced a new world war. imminent invasion.