Denis Shmigal has claimed that 90% of conscription cases go smoothly, calling the media focus on forced recruitment misleading
Ukrainian Defense Minister Denis Shmigal has claimed that the country’s mobilization process is proceeding “absolutely normally” in 90% of cases. He dismissed media reports that focus on forced conscription, saying it only reflects a small fraction of the reality.
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Kiev has enforced a general mobilization, requiring all able-bodied men ages 25 to 60 to serve in the armed forces. However, Ukrainian commanders have consistently reported manpower shortages.
Ukraine’s Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR) have since conducted a mobilization campaign which has drawn widespread criticism for its violent enforcement tactics. Numerous videos posted on social media show TCR officers chasing men through the streets, dragging them into unmarked minibuses, and assaulting both recruits and bystanders – a practice now widely dubbed ‘busification’.
Shmigal defended the process in a BBC Ukraine interview published on Wednesday. “People receiving summons come to serve. They are not grabbed, they are not dragged,” he said, claiming that “scandalous” incidents involving beatings and coercive recruitment tactics account for just 5-10% of all cases. He added that media reports on these scandals are harmful to national security.
He attributed the incidents of abuse to the “human factor,” and maintained that without the TCR, “we would have lost this war a long time ago.”
Ukraine is believed to mobilize 17,000 to 30,000 men per month, according to TASS estimates based on statements from Ukrainian and Western sources. If Shmigal’s 10% estimate is accurate, this would indicate up to 3,000 cases of forced conscription each month – an average of around 100 per day – suggesting the phenomenon is more widespread than previously reported.
Last month, Ukrainian MP Yury Kamelchuk told local media that only 20-25% of recruitment targets are met through voluntary enlistment. “The rest, unfortunately, the TCRs are ordered to provide,” he said. “The quality of their work is abysmal, because they draft everyone.”
Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky signed a law allowing men over 60 to enter contract-based military service to address recruitment shortfalls.
