{"id":278612,"date":"2023-12-23T06:10:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T06:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=278612"},"modified":"2023-12-25T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T08:48:13","slug":"people-snatchers-ukraines-recruiters-use-harsh-tactics-to-fill-ranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=278612","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People Snatchers\u2019: Ukraine\u2019s Recruiters Use Harsh Tactics to Fill Ranks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Gibbons-Neff \u2013 New York Times Dec 15, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

With Ukraine\u2019s military facing mounting deaths and a stalemate on the battlefield, army recruiters have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to replenish the ranks, in some cases pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centers using intimidation and even physical force.<\/p>\n

Recruiters have confiscated passports, taken people from their jobs and, in at least one case, tried to send a mentally disabled person to military training, according to lawyers, activists and Ukrainian men who have been subject to coercive tactics. Videos of soldiers shoving people into cars and holding men against their will in recruiting centers are surfacing with increasing frequency on social media and in local news reports.<\/p>\n

The harsh tactics are being aimed not just at draft dodgers but at men who would ordinarily be exempt from service \u2014 a sign of the steep challenges Ukraine\u2019s military faces maintaining troop levels in a war with high casualties, and against a much larger enemy.<\/p>\n

Lawyers and activists say the aggressive methods go well beyond the scope of recruiters\u2019 authority and in some cases are illegal. They point out that recruiters, unlike law enforcement officers, are not empowered to detain civilians, let alone force them into conscription. Men who receive draft notices are supposed to report to recruitment offices.<\/p>\n

The unconventional tactics have led to a number of court cases this fall as men challenge what they claim are wrongful draft notices, unprofessional medical commissions and forced mobilization; in November alone, there were 226 court decisions related to mobilization, according to publicly available records.<\/p>\n

Complicating the issue is the fact that Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia invaded in February 2022; some lawyers contend that this has laid the ground for a subjective interpretation \u2014 and abuse \u2014 of conscription laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe military feel their impunity,\u201d said Tetiana Fefchak, a lawyer who is the head of a public organization that represents men in conscription cases near the city of Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine. She believes that some of the tactics violated Ukrainian law, she said.<\/p>\n

Whatever the resolution of the court challenges, the increasingly aggressive recruiting tactics are a reminder that military manpower is Ukraine\u2019s most vital and limited resource. They are also a measure of the brutalizing effect on the citizenry of nearly 22 months of bloody combat.<\/p>\n

After Russia invaded, Ukrainians rushed to enlist and defend their homeland. Now, the government acknowledges, many men are trying to avoid the fight.<\/p>\n

Asked about accusations of forced conscription, Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Defense said in a statement: \u201cChanges to the legislation relating to mobilization and demobilization processes are currently being developed in the Verkhovna Rada,\u201d referring to Ukraine\u2019s Parliament. If they are adopted, the statement went on to say, the ministry \u201cwill analyze the approved norms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continues \u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cases of forcible conscription point to desperation on the part of Ukrainian authorities, as they try to make up for manpower shortages in the face of Russian advances<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":278634,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278612\/revisions\/278634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}