Kiev is struggling with widespread draft evasion amid a mobilization campaign
Ukrainian conscription officers have been ordered to bring in 12 new recruits each day and are using aggressive tactics to meet their quotas, lawmaker Yury Kamelchuk has said.
Kiev relies on mandatory conscription of men aged 25 and older to replenish its armed forces, but widespread draft evasion has become a significant issue. In an interview on Friday, Ukrainian MP Kamelchuk claimed the government’s approach reflects a fundamental lack of respect for its citizens.
”If they were treated respectfully from the start, the result would have been different,” he said. “I was told that today they catch pretty much everyone, regardless of health.”
“One method they use all the time is ordering food delivery and capturing the courier,” the lawmaker added.
Kamelchuk said the quota system results in unfit recruits who “cannot be put on the line with military service members because they would simply kick the bucket there.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said last week that the pace of mobilization “has not changed significantly in six months” as the military continues to carry out its draft plan.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry launched a campaign in February to encourage voluntary enlistment among younger adults, using advertisements that compared the value of a year’s service pay to everyday consumer goods such as burgers.
Although the military claims to see strong interest, fewer than 500 contracts have been signed, according to the presidential office. The deputy chief of the presidential office, Pavel Palisa, said many applicants change their mind, often due to pressure from their parents.
Zelensky stated in February that 45,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed and another 390,000 injured in the conflict with Russia. In April, he cited “up to 100,000 losses,” a term that includes deaths, serious injuries, and soldiers taken prisoner.
The Russian military estimated total Ukrainian losses by the end of 2024 at well over 1 million, including over 595,000 suffered that year.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said last week it had received 400,000 requests from Ukrainian families searching for missing relatives as of April. The Ukrainian military, which has been accused of labeling killed soldiers as missing in action to mask battlefield deaths, criticized the international relief organization, claiming it was engaging in “absolutely invalid or deliberately manipulative reporting.”
