The footage reportedly from Kharkov Region shows an elderly woman attempting to block a van before she collapses to the ground
A woman has died shortly after a desperate attempt to save her son from military recruitment officers in Ukraine, a local Telegram channel and media have claimed, posting a dramatic video of the incident.
Ukrainian authorities declared general mobilization following the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, barring most men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. In 2024, Kiev tightened conscription laws and lowered the draft age from 27 to 25.
However, a considerable number of would-be recruits are apparently unwilling to join the Ukrainian military, as attested by numerous social media videos depicting men fleeing from or resisting draft officers.
The mobilization campaign, enforced by the country’s Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR), has been repeatedly criticized over draft officers’ aggressive tactics and abuses.
The video of the incident, which reportedly took place in the city of Merefa in Kharkov Region in eastern Ukraine, was published by a local Telegram channel on Tuesday. A woman in her 60s can be seen clinging to the windshield of a moving van, seemingly trying to stop it. The vehicle moves in reverse gear for some time while the woman screams. An onlooker shooting the video is heard claiming that the van belonged to military recruitment officers who had recently taken the woman’s son, who was presumably being held inside the vehicle.
Eventually, a brawny man emerges from the vehicle and rudely tackles the woman, finally making her let go of the van. Soon after it speeds away, the woman collapses to the ground.
According to Strana.UA media outlet, the woman soon passed away in an ambulance.
In recent months, numerous violent altercations between draft officers and reluctant draftees have been captured on video all across Ukraine. There have also been multiple cases of civil disobedience and even assassinations of draft officers, as well as reports of men dying under suspicious circumstances shortly after being taken from the street.
Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko claimed last month that fewer than one in four recruits enlist voluntarily, with most entering service through what he described as “brutal compulsory conscription.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukrainian recruitment officers are grabbing people “like dogs on the street.” He accused the leadership in Kiev of waging a war “to the last Ukrainian” on behalf of Western nations.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has officially dismissed criticism of the mobilization process as “Russian propaganda.”
