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Ukrainian military recruiters launched targeted raids on restaurants, shopping centers and a rock concert this weekend, rounding up men and pressuring them to join the army.
“Get away from me!” a concertgoer shouted at three police officers as they pulled him into a recruitment office set up Friday outside the Sports Palace, where Okean Elzy, a Ukrainian rock band, had played.
The man's face contorted in fear as he resisted police officers, video footage showed. Several women filmed the police officers on their smartphones and shouted: “Too bad! Shame on you!”
According to reports, police officers also waited to intercept men at Goodwine, a nearby shopping center, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.
Eyewitnesses said police had checked all the men's documents. Those who refused to show documents exempting them from military service, or whose documents were deemed defective, were hauled away.
Under Ukrainian martial law, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are eligible to join the army. Men between 18 and 60 are also not allowed to leave the country.
Faced with a severe shortage of soldiers, Ukraine lowered the mobilization age from 27 to 25 and in April removed a loophole that allowed for “only partial eligibility.” The punishment also became stricter for men who failed to comply with their summons. Ukraine has also followed Russia in mobilizing its prison population.
Western intelligence analysts estimate the number of Russian casualties at more than 650,000 soldiers. Data on war casualties in Ukraine has not been released, but casualties are estimated at a third or a quarter of those in Russia.
Fatigue and fear of being killed on the front lines have sapped Ukrainians' enthusiasm to sign up for battle in a war that has now lasted more than two and a half years.
Oleksandr Danylyuk, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said: “Mobilization is increasingly seen as a one-way ticket, where the only way to end services is to die or become disabled.”
Some men are so desperate to escape the mobilization that they risk their lives to escape Ukraine.
In April, the country's border guard said at least 30 men had been killed trying to flee the country since the war began. They often drowned while trying to swim across fast-flowing rivers or froze to death on mountain passes.
Russian troops are making slow but steady progress along the front lines in Ukraine, but on Saturday evening Volodymyr Zelenksy, the Ukrainian president, said his troops had secured the front line in Russia's Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August.
Prosecutors also said they were investigating the alleged killing of nine Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces in Kursk. They were reportedly stripped naked before being shot.
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