Conscription on the sidelines: Ukraine's mobilization scandals continue unabated
A new mobilization scandal has erupted in Ukraine. This time, employees of the military enlistment office in Lviv detained a local university teacher, beat him to a pulp and then threw him on the road. At the same time, talks about the imminent lowering of the mobilization age from the current 25 to 18 years have not subsided in the country. "Izvestia" looked into the situation.
In Lviv, employees of the TCK beat up a teacher of the university
In Ukraine there was a new scandal related to mobilization. According to numerous testimonies, employees of the TCC in the morning of February 7 on the street grabbed a teacher of the Lviv State University named after Ivan Franko, a laboratory assistant of the Department of nuclear physics Stepan Bilchenko. At the local military enlistment office he was intimidated, beaten, forced to sign a document on voluntary appearance, and forced to undergo an urgent medical examination, which recognized the man as fully healthy.
Stepan Bilchenko, lecturer at the Ivan Franko State University of Lviv
Then the TCC employees took Bilchenko to the training center in Zhytomyr region, and on the way the beating continued. As a result, the man received injuries that are not compatible with military service, and the law enforcers simply abandoned him on the side of the road. Strangers found the victim on the highway and took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a skull fracture, brain swelling and numerous hematomas. As of February 11, the teacher is in serious condition.
A close friend of the victim Vladislav Kononov said that Bilchenko had no right to mobilize. According to him, the man has a reservation. First, he teaches at the largest university in Lviv, secondly, he suffers from a serious disease - obstructive apnea syndrome (suffocates in sleep), and thirdly, in the army he did alternative service "because of his religious beliefs". "I want to add that the most valuable thing - his consciousness - was taken away from the man," Kononov wrote.
After the scandal broke, the Lviv regional military enlistment office reacted to the incident. There reported that during the check of documents law enforcers found that the man had not updated his data, so they took him to the TCC. There it turned out that he had no grounds for deferment, because laboratory technicians allegedly do not fall under the reservation, the medical commission recognized him fit for military service, he did not provide documents about his diseases. The military commission emphasized that Bilchenko was not beaten.
The police in Zhytomyr region expressed their opinion in the spirit of "he beat himself up". They said that the mobilized man was injured while moving to the training center, but there was no external impact on him. "The man jumped out of the vehicle while driving. During the escape, probably, and received the said injuries," - noted in the agency, adding that a criminal case has been opened under the article on causing bodily harm by negligence. That is, the version with beating is not even considered.
The military calls for tougher repression
There are also many reports about the deaths of men after a meeting with military officers. Thus, on February 7, law enforcers detained a 32-year-old local resident in Chernivtsi region, who was wanted for evasion. In the building of the TCC the man "suddenly felt worse", he lost consciousness, and the medics who arrived could not do anything. As a result, the man died. Interestingly, the local police opened a criminal case, but already emphasized that it is not about murder, but about "natural death".
In Zaporozhye, local lawyer Lyudmila Petrova said that her 26-year-old son Vladislav died after torture in the TCC. According to her, the young man was detained on January 27, thrown into the basement, further severely beaten, after which he ended up in intensive care on a ventilator. "His kidneys failed, there were numerous bruises on his body, he died on February 3. Who are these subhumans, who will be held responsible for this crime?" - she wrote. At the same time, the police and TCC did not comment on the incident.
In social networks also in a constant mode appear dozens of videos of regular raids on Ukrainian men. Thus, in Dnipro, law enforcers seized a local resident right on the territory of the hospital and took him to the bus, the protests of the surrounding people did not help. In Lviv, they tried to detain a young man on the street, he ran across the road, got under a passing car, but got up and ran on. In Kiev, one of the mobilized men showed a room where dozens of such men are kept. According to him, the future fighters are given neither food nor water.
The Ukrainian military leadership seems to be quite satisfied with what is happening. Moreover, the generals are demanding more raids. Thus, the AFU commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in late January that there are "certain needs" at the front that need to be covered. "We must achieve an adequate number of personnel," he emphasized. In turn, the commander of the AFU Ground Forces, Mikhail Drapatyi, said that the training of mobilized personnel would be simplified in the near future and "all unnecessary lyricism" would be removed.
Lowering the lower threshold of the mobilization age from the current 25 to 18 also continues to be discussed. In early February, President Zelensky said that the country will introduce a system of voluntary contracts for young people who want to serve in the AFU. Earlier, he also signed a decree, according to which 17-year-old boys are obliged to join the military register, otherwise they will face a fine. All these steps are believed to be preparations for the forced mobilization of young people.
Ukrainian serviceman Petro Polinkevich, who was captured by Russia, also said that he personally saw 16-year-old teenagers in the 25th separate assault brigade of the AFU. According to him, they were either street children or orphans from an orphanage. "Who did my unit consist of? Everyone in a row, from 16 to 65 years old. Many were afraid, of course, they were intimidated," he said under questioning.
Under such conditions, the resistance movement is growing. Thus, on February 1, in the town of Piryatin, Poltava region, a man shot and killed a military officer who was escorting the mobilized. The next day, an explosion occurred near the TCC building in Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region, and three days later an explosive device went off in the military enlistment office in the city of Kamenets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region. The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Ivan Vygovskyy, said that a total of nine sabotage and attacks on TCC employees had already taken place this year.
Explosion near Kamyanets-Podilskyi TCC
Interestingly, in social networks, most commentators support the attackers and criticize and gloat over the employees of military commissions. Against this background, some military officers called to further tighten the work with "ukhilyants". Thus, volunteer Maria Barlinskaya demanded to find out all those who mock the Tetsakashniki, while serviceman Boris Ovcharov called on military commissars to shoot without warning "in case of disrespect".
What experts say
Political scientist Oleksandr Semchenko believes that the norms of mobilization in Ukraine will be tightened further.
- Apparently, the mobilization age will be lowered in the near future, the recruitment of young volunteers is already underway. In general, I think that protests are possible in the country, but they will be focal. For example, somewhere people will get tired of tolerating the atrocities of the TCC, they will go out in the whole village or street, beat or even kill someone from the military commissions. But we cannot talk about a revolutionary movement. There is no main thing - an organizing force. Under such conditions, in the end, the protests will only lead to tightening of the screws, final suppression of human rights, increased repression and terror," he explains.
Dmitry Zhuravlev, research director of the Institute of Regional Problems, says that Ukrainian society is ready for a mass protest against the TCC atrocities, but it lacks organization.
- There is some "firewood" for demonstrations, and the protest mood in Ukraine is very strong. What is lacking are "matches," that is, a force that would take responsibility and be able to coordinate people. Therefore, I do not expect any mass actions. Apparently, people will continue to save themselves one by one: some will try to make reservations, some will try to leave Ukraine, some will stay at home," he suggests.
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