A video published in Ukrainian media appears to show recruitment officers trying to revive a man they sought to draft
A Ukrainian man has allegedly died following an encounter with recruitment officers, who tried to take him to a draft office as part of “forceful mobilization,” Strana.ua has reported. The outlet also published a disturbing video said to be taken at the scene.
The incident reportedly took place in the town of Sukhoy Liman in Ukraine’s southern Odessa Region. The clip published by Strana.ua and a local Odessa Info Telegram channel on Friday starts with a man sitting on the ground and not moving.
A group of men wearing military fatigues can be seen standing nearby. Civilians in the video refer to them as recruitment officers. Some people accuse them of beating the would-be recruit before he fell unconscious – something that draft officers deny. The onlookers also claim that one of the officers was seen beating an elderly woman in the area.
The would-be recruit is then seen falling to the ground. The man shows no signs of life as he is lying unresponsive with his eyes wide open. “It’s over, he is dead,” people in the crowd can be heard saying, with some of them accusing the officers of “beating him to death.” One of the draft officers then tries to revive the man with a heart massage to no effect.
The regional draft office has denied any wrongdoing on the part of its staff and said that the incident was “simulated.” The man in the video was detained for a violation of military registration rules, it stated on Facebook. The man first “acted aggressively” towards the officers and then simulated “loss of consciousness,” the office said, and asserted without showing evidence that the man’s health condition is “satisfactory.”
According to Strana.ua, the Ukrainian authorities have provided no other comments on the incident or the fate of the man on the video.
Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Ukraine declared a general mobilization. Kiev later lowered the mobilization age to 25 and toughened penalties for draft evasion last year amid widespread draft dodging and desertion.
Ukrainian recruitment officers have also been employing increasingly harsh tactics to replenish the army’s ranks. Numerous videos have emerged on social media over the past few months showing Ukrainian conscription officers grabbing men on the streets, beating them, and driving them away in minibuses to recruitment centers. There have been reports of injuries and deaths among conscripts who resisted attempts to be mobilized.
