Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces soldiers on armored vehicles during exercises near Kiev on July 13, 2022 (Photo: Getty).
In some cases, recruiters arrested people on the street, threatening or even using force to take them to recruiting centers, according to the New York Times.
This approach targets not only draft dodgers but also those who are normally exempt from military service, a sign of the challenges the Ukrainian army faces in maintaining its numbers.
“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 military recruiters confiscated his passport and only returned it to him after a medical examination a few days later.
Locals say Kitsman recruiters have a reputation as "people snatchers".
The New York Times said it spoke with more than 20 lawyers, activists, soldiers, conscripts and relatives of conscripts about the heavy-handed approach of military recruiters.
Lawyers and activists say the heavy-handed tactics — which reportedly include the use of force — exceed the limits of recruiters' authority and are clearly illegal in some cases.
Like other countries, the Ukrainian military will exempt people from service in certain cases, such as those with disabilities or illnesses.
But the New York Times said it had found at least one case in which Ukrainian military recruiters tried to recruit Hryhorii Harasym, a 36-year-old mentally disabled man who was taking medication for depression, for training.
After being found eligible for military service with some restrictions, Harasym was called up for military service.
“They drafted into the army a person who was officially diagnosed as ‘mentally disabled’ since childhood,” Tetiana Fefchak, the lawyer who blocked Harasym’s draft, told the New York Times .
Several Ukrainian men have gone to court to challenge what they say are wrongful drafts or forced mobilizations.
In November alone, Ukrainian courts handed down more than 200 decisions related to military mobilization, according to the New York Times .
A military recruitment advertisement in western Ukraine (Photo: New York Times).
In response to allegations of forced conscription, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said: "The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) is working on amendments to the law on the process of mobilization and demobilization."
If the regulations are adopted, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry "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 as many as 120,000 wounded in the conflict, a figure that may have risen amid fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine.
US intelligence estimates that Russia had up to 350,000 soldiers killed and wounded in the conflict.
As the conflict raged, Kiev banned men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country and began a series of conscription drives. In May, Ukraine's parliament voted to lower the military conscription age to 25.
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