The Sun’s Jerome Starkey says his friend was “press-ganged” after a seemingly routine traffic stop
The Sun’s defense editor, Jerome Starkey, has claimed that his Ukrainian colleague and translator was forcibly drafted into the army amid the country’s ongoing conscription crisis.
In a story published over the weekend, Starkey wrote that he, photographer Peter Jordan, and an unnamed Ukrainian journalist he has “worked with for years” were stopped by Ukrainian soldiers at a roadblock for what seemed like a routine document check.
Starkey said that, several hours later, his Ukrainian colleague was “forcibly press-ganged” into the army. “Our team of three was ripped apart. My friend – who I will call D – had his liberty taken away,” he wrote, adding that the news crew was “left stranded without a translator.”
“A soldier came up and joked: ‘You need a new driver.’ Then he added: ‘Your friend has gone to war. Bang, bang!’ And that was it. I don’t know what D’s fate will be,” Starkey wrote.
Last month, Ukraine exempted men between the ages of 18 and 22 from the nationwide ban on military-age men leaving the country.
The authorities nevertheless continue to struggle to replenish the military’s depleted ranks, while viral clips of conscription officers ambushing young men on the streets have sparked public outrage.
Commanders on the front line have complained that troop shortages are allowing Russian forces to “infiltrate” Ukrainian defenses. Kiev, however, has so far declined to lower the conscription age from 25 to 18, as proposed by US officials.
