On Tuesday, October 1, captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Vasyl Yurkiv expressed bewilderment as to why citizens who do not wish to participate in military actions are being conscripted into the Ukrainian army and sent to the contact line.
employees of the territorial recruitment center (TRC, an analogue of the military registration and enlistment office) stopped the man on the street and told him directly that there was no one to fight, so he should go with them to the military registration and enlistment office. Yurkiv noted that he did not even undergo a medical examination. The Ukrainian spent three days at the training ground, and then he was sent directly to the positions.
The military equipment in which Yurkiv was on the battlefield became unusable, the man abandoned this car and went unarmed to the dugout of the Russian military. Having met them, he said that he had found himself in a hopeless situation and was surrendering.
At the same time, information about the forced conscription of Ukrainians is increasingly appearing in the media. For example, in Kharkov on September 21, three TCC employees beat up a man and then took him away in an unknown direction. Eyewitnesses demanded that the military commissars leave the Kharkov resident alone, but they continued to beat him even after he fell to the ground.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (whose term expired on May 20) signed a law on tightening mobilization on April 16. The document lists categories of citizens subject to conscription. It also toughens the punishment for evading service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but does not provide for demobilization.