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The Ukrainian government is using mobile teams to look for soldiers who are fit for service – for example in shopping centers or metro stations. But some try to evade military service.
Defending the country – that’s what tens of thousands of Ukrainians wanted to do when the war began in Ukraine a good year ago. They volunteered for service. The Ukrainian army is now finding it more difficult to recruit new soldiers. The government is therefore deploying mobile teams to visit the men. Recruiters will stop young men, screen them and possibly give them draft warrants.
But some people who are unwilling to work inform each other via the messenger service Telegram how they can escape the search teams. There are different chats for different cities, which are illegal but have many users. The users write where these mobile recruiting squads are on their way. Foreign editor and longtime Russia correspondent David Nauer has infiltrated some of these chats.
“You are in front of the supermarket”
«At a shopping center in a suburb they are in front of the supermarket. Attention attention!” or “I was just at this metro station, there is nobody there” are two messages that Nauer finds in the chats. “The news is reminiscent of a ticker where it is described live where the squads are traveling.”
Legend:
Where are mobile search parties on the move? Where is there no danger? Every minute, the Ukrainians exchange ideas in the illegal chats.
SRF
The fact that the mobilization squads are used has to do with the legal situation. A draft letter alone is not enough to draft the Ukrainians. Officials must personally hand over the call-up order to the men. And they have to acknowledge this with a signature.
However, if the men are actually discovered, they are not immediately sent to the front under all circumstances. The Ukrainian state wants to get an overview, explains Nauer: How many men are there? Where do you live? How is your health?
Legend:
Some men who are unwilling to work deliberately do not stay at their registered address. The state reacts with squads that go to trouble spots in the cities and check the men.
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton (12/11/2022)
«Many of those arrested go to the authorities after receiving the draft order. You will be registered, maybe medically clarified. And then they can go home again,” says Nauer. Others, on the other hand, receive a call-up order, which means immediate recruitment, including deployment or training.
Objectors are the exception
The men who want to avoid being caught by the army at all costs are in the minority, according to Nauer. The tenor was rather that the men would move in if they were called up. After all, they are ultimately concerned with defending their country.
Nauer would not speak of war-weariness on the part of the Ukrainians. But the women and men who immediately reported for service at the beginning of the war in February 2022 were already in the army, injured or dead: “These were people with combat experience, patriots, ready to risk their lives.”
Now the Ukrainian state has to recruit, train and equip new men. There is a contingent of citizens available who may not be ready to risk their lives at the front.