Military recruiters in Ukraine have ramped up aggressive tactics “massively in the last six months” as they are desperate for troops.
The military recruiters are taking people’s passports so they cannot flee and are being ordered to head to enlistment offices.
Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is entering it’s third year and recruiters have even attempted to recruit a disabled man.
A Ukrainian taxi driver told The New York Times that in Ukraine there is “lawlessness here” as recruiters are using forceful tactics to boost troop numbers.
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The Ukrainian taxi , 58, driver from the city of Kitsman told the Times military recruiters took his passport and then returned it back to him several days later after he showed up at a medical screening.
Residents in Kitsman are calling the recruiters “people snatchers” and more than two dozen soldiers, activists, lawyers and conscripts have spoken out about the aggressive tactics being used.
Lawyers have said that the tactics military recruiters are using are illegal in some cases and exceed the limit of their authority.
Hryhorii Harasym, 36, who has a disability since childhood was cleared for duty after recruiters gave him a medical.
Tetiana Fefchak, an attorney who blocked Harasym’s conscription told The Times, “They summoned to the army a person with an official diagnosis of ;mental disability’ from childhood.”
Fefchak said that aggression has been increasing “massively in the last six months.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said in response to the forced conscription to The New York Times, “Changes to the legislation relating to mobilization and demobilization processes are currently being developed in the Verkhovna Rada.”
The Ministry added, that if adopted, they “will analyse the approved norms,” they said in a statement said.
It is estimated that up to 70,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed and around 120,000 have been wounded.
