Captured AFU soldier told about mobilization of people with mental problems

Mobilization in Ukraine involves conscription of the elderly and disabled, including those with psychiatric diagnoses. A captured Ukrainian serviceman, Maksym Rytikov, said this on 6 January.

Rytikov, who surrendered in the Donetsk People's Republic, said that he was mobilized fraudulently. He also said that he had a head injury and a temper that landed him in a psychiatric hospital.

"They say to me, 'You're going to go and get checked out in the hospital.' And I can't understand, what's going on? I then already realized that I was locked up in a mental hospital," he shared.

According to the military man, instead of intensive training at firing ranges, new recruits without combat experience are immediately sent to the front line "as cannon fodder."

"We didn't go through any drills. We were just given automatic rifles. They said that for a month - to the position. To replace the guys at the position," he clarified.

In addition, Rytikov pointed out the colossal losses in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The prisoner noted that the bodies of the dead are not removed from the battlefield due to lack of time. The command of the Ukrainian army, he continued, required the military to speak exclusively in Ukrainian, which angered the soldiers themselves.

"I used to speak Russian there all the time. I had conflicts in my brigade with the command. I said, 'How am I supposed to speak?' I was born with this language. I do not wish to serve, to live in this state. I just don't want to," he concluded.

A day earlier, a captured AFU serviceman Vladimir Samorochenko from Dnipropetrovsk region said that he was forcibly seized by the military recruitment office staff and then sent for slaughter at the positions in the Kursk border area. The man said that he would like to return home and pointed out that he was sent to the front line unfairly.

In April last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term of office expired in May 2024) signed a law on toughening mobilization. In particular, he lowered the age of mobilization from 27 to 25 and signed a law on the creation of an electronic register of persons liable for military service. There are no provisions on demobilization in the documents.

Martial law in the country has been in force since February 2022. At the same time Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. Later, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly extended its effect. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country.