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The financial incentive has gone away.
DNIPRO, Ukraine—One Ukrainian paid almost $10,000 to flee the draft. Another has ignored five military summonses. A third avoids public spaces, fearing a military official will pounce and issue a call-up.
After a year of war, Ukraine is facing increasing challenges in raising the troops it needs to resist Russian forces and eject them from its territory.
When Russia invaded in February last year, thousands of volunteers lined up outside military recruitment centers. With many of them now dead or injured, authorities are scrambling to recruit replacements, often drafting those who have neither the desire nor the training to serve. The result is a growing number of fighting-age men who are attempting to evade service.
So far, Ukraine has managed to replenish its ranks regularly, and has largely succeeded in holding back a monthslong Russian onslaught in the east as it awaits an influx of tens of thousands of fresh troops, many of them trained in the West, to drive its planned spring offensive.
But while polls show that support for the defense effort remains high, the stock of willing volunteers now appears to be dwindling. Ukraine’s population is less than one-third the size of Russia’s, not accounting for the exodus of millions since the war began, and the kind of coercion used in Russia’s authoritarian system isn’t an option, Kyiv says.
“We can’t do as Russia does and drive people to war with batons,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in February, three days after he renewed a decree on mobilization that makes reservists and most healthy men of fighting age eligible for call-up, in place since the war started. He said evasion of military service was a serious issue for Ukraine.
The war has ravaged the professional armies of both Ukraine and Russia. Moscow responded last September with a mobilization of more than 300,000 men, and President Vladimir Putin has told Russians to prepare for a protracted war.
Ukraine had a standing army of 260,000 when Russia invaded, and around 100,000 have been killed or wounded since then, according to Western estimates. The military banked until recently on patriotic fervor to swell those ranks. TV ads call on people to sign up and “defend what’s yours,” and billboards promote the Interior Ministry’s new Offensive Guard, with brigades named Anger and Spartan, and slogans urging reservists and experienced troops to “turn your rage into firepower.”
Alongside the recruitment campaigns, Ukraine is increasingly relying on enlistment officers in military uniform handing out summonses in public spaces. The Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s domestic security and intelligence agency, said this month that it had closed down 26 Telegram channels that had been posting the locations and times where they were active.
Receiving a summons in Ukraine means one of three things. You may simply be obliged to visit the recruitment office and confirm your details so authorities can update their databases. You may be subject to a medical checkup to assess your fitness for service. Or you may be required to pack your things and report for dispatch to an army base and training as a mobilized soldier.
A 25-year-old operations manager at a cryptocurrency company in Kyiv has spent the past few months staying away from cafes, restaurants and other public spaces to avoid a call-up. He said he understands the need for mobilization but said he believes he does his part by contributing part of his income each month to the armed forces.
“I’m pretty sure there are people with better ability to fight than me,” he said. “I’m not standing on the front lines shooting bad guys, but there are multiple front lines in this war.”
Ruslan Bortnik, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, a think tank in Kyiv, said recent changes have discouraged many men from fighting. Last month, the military slashed bonuses for non-front-line personnel, calling it a cost-saving measure. A new law signed by Mr. Zelensky in January introduced harsher punishment for desertion and disobedience.
There have been public scandals involving inappropriate call-ups and videos appearing to show men being roughed up by enlistment officers for refusing a summons. A disabled person was drafted in western Ukraine and pronounced fit for service despite having no hands. Another died on the front lines within a month of mobilization after 10 days of training, according to his relatives.
Officials last week denied that untrained mobilized troops were being sent to battle unprepared, though they said the length of military training has been squeezed into a shorter period due to the war. “Kremlin propaganda continues to spread fakes and myths,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a Telegram post. Several soldiers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal near Bakhmut last week said they had been sent to battle within days of being called up. Others say they have received several weeks of training.
Ignoring a summons can lead to criminal charges, though such cases are rarely punished. A 38-year-old welder in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region has received five summonses despite being a father of three children, caring for a mother who has cancer, and having health problems—all, he says, grounds for an exemption. He said he is challenging the call-up.
Mykola Usenko, a 33-year-old factory worker from the same village who was mobilized in November, said it was better not to take people who don’t want to fight. “There are those who want to go that aren’t being called up,” said Mr. Usenko, who returned home this month to recuperate from injuries sustained at the front. “Call them up instead.”
With men between the ages of 18 and 60 banned from leaving Ukraine, a small number have resorted to radical means to get out. The country’s border force frequently reports arrests, publishing stories of men cross-dressing as women, paying smugglers to whisk them out and one almost drowning as he tried to cross a river that runs along the border with Hungary this month.
Ukrainian authorities say 66,374 men exited the country in 2022 using documents that allow volunteers and humanitarian-aid workers to leave, provided they come back within a specified period. More than 9,300 of them haven’t returned, the figures show.
Various schemes have helped men flee, often costing thousands of dollars. They include buying a passenger seat alongside a long-haul truck driver leaving the country, bribing a doctor to issue an exemption, or enrolling at a university using fake documents, according to men interviewed by the Journal who have researched them.
A 37-year-old native of Kyiv left Ukraine in February after paying close to $10,000 for three different schemes. He had owned a small business selling car parts in the Ukrainian capital but said it fell apart when the war started.
The man said he first paid $2,500 for a student card from a Warsaw university, and an official spot on one of the university’s courses. But the day after he received the card in September, Ukraine said it was no longer allowing male students to leave. A friend had a contact at a draft office, and the businessman paid the contact $3,000 for documents listing him as unfit for service. The contact took his money and stopped answering his calls, he said.
In the end, he acquired a document listing him as a volunteer aid worker, traveled to the Polish border at night and spent an hour convincing a guard that he wasn’t trying to flee before finally being allowed to enter Poland.
“For the first time in a year I felt free, like my life again belonged to me,” he said in a phone interview from Canada, where he is building a new life with his wife. He left disillusioned with Ukraine’s struggle to overcome corruption and said he wasn’t willing to fight for change.
There is still a steady flow of volunteers to the army, and many men willing to fight. Polls suggest public support for Ukraine’s defense effort hasn’t waned. But Mr. Bortnik said time might not be on Ukraine’s side as it continues to lose lives on the battlefield and discontent over conditions for soldiers grows.
“The financial incentive has gone away. Some are thinking: ‘I can earn that money myself, without risking my life,’” he said.
Особенно понравилось про менеджера криптовалютной компании в Киеве. Ржачная статья.
DNIPRO, Ukraine—One Ukrainian paid almost $10,000 to flee the draft. Another has ignored five military summonses. A third avoids public spaces, fearing a military official will pounce and issue a call-up.
After a year of war, Ukraine is facing increasing challenges in raising the troops it needs to resist Russian forces and eject them from its territory.
When Russia invaded in February last year, thousands of volunteers lined up outside military recruitment centers. With many of them now dead or injured, authorities are scrambling to recruit replacements, often drafting those who have neither the desire nor the training to serve. The result is a growing number of fighting-age men who are attempting to evade service.
So far, Ukraine has managed to replenish its ranks regularly, and has largely succeeded in holding back a monthslong Russian onslaught in the east as it awaits an influx of tens of thousands of fresh troops, many of them trained in the West, to drive its planned spring offensive.
But while polls show that support for the defense effort remains high, the stock of willing volunteers now appears to be dwindling. Ukraine’s population is less than one-third the size of Russia’s, not accounting for the exodus of millions since the war began, and the kind of coercion used in Russia’s authoritarian system isn’t an option, Kyiv says.
“We can’t do as Russia does and drive people to war with batons,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in February, three days after he renewed a decree on mobilization that makes reservists and most healthy men of fighting age eligible for call-up, in place since the war started. He said evasion of military service was a serious issue for Ukraine.
The war has ravaged the professional armies of both Ukraine and Russia. Moscow responded last September with a mobilization of more than 300,000 men, and President Vladimir Putin has told Russians to prepare for a protracted war.
Ukraine had a standing army of 260,000 when Russia invaded, and around 100,000 have been killed or wounded since then, according to Western estimates. The military banked until recently on patriotic fervor to swell those ranks. TV ads call on people to sign up and “defend what’s yours,” and billboards promote the Interior Ministry’s new Offensive Guard, with brigades named Anger and Spartan, and slogans urging reservists and experienced troops to “turn your rage into firepower.”
Alongside the recruitment campaigns, Ukraine is increasingly relying on enlistment officers in military uniform handing out summonses in public spaces. The Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s domestic security and intelligence agency, said this month that it had closed down 26 Telegram channels that had been posting the locations and times where they were active.
Receiving a summons in Ukraine means one of three things. You may simply be obliged to visit the recruitment office and confirm your details so authorities can update their databases. You may be subject to a medical checkup to assess your fitness for service. Or you may be required to pack your things and report for dispatch to an army base and training as a mobilized soldier.
A 25-year-old operations manager at a cryptocurrency company in Kyiv has spent the past few months staying away from cafes, restaurants and other public spaces to avoid a call-up. He said he understands the need for mobilization but said he believes he does his part by contributing part of his income each month to the armed forces.
“I’m pretty sure there are people with better ability to fight than me,” he said. “I’m not standing on the front lines shooting bad guys, but there are multiple front lines in this war.”
Ruslan Bortnik, head of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, a think tank in Kyiv, said recent changes have discouraged many men from fighting. Last month, the military slashed bonuses for non-front-line personnel, calling it a cost-saving measure. A new law signed by Mr. Zelensky in January introduced harsher punishment for desertion and disobedience.
There have been public scandals involving inappropriate call-ups and videos appearing to show men being roughed up by enlistment officers for refusing a summons. A disabled person was drafted in western Ukraine and pronounced fit for service despite having no hands. Another died on the front lines within a month of mobilization after 10 days of training, according to his relatives.
Officials last week denied that untrained mobilized troops were being sent to battle unprepared, though they said the length of military training has been squeezed into a shorter period due to the war. “Kremlin propaganda continues to spread fakes and myths,” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said in a Telegram post. Several soldiers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal near Bakhmut last week said they had been sent to battle within days of being called up. Others say they have received several weeks of training.
Ignoring a summons can lead to criminal charges, though such cases are rarely punished. A 38-year-old welder in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region has received five summonses despite being a father of three children, caring for a mother who has cancer, and having health problems—all, he says, grounds for an exemption. He said he is challenging the call-up.
Mykola Usenko, a 33-year-old factory worker from the same village who was mobilized in November, said it was better not to take people who don’t want to fight. “There are those who want to go that aren’t being called up,” said Mr. Usenko, who returned home this month to recuperate from injuries sustained at the front. “Call them up instead.”
With men between the ages of 18 and 60 banned from leaving Ukraine, a small number have resorted to radical means to get out. The country’s border force frequently reports arrests, publishing stories of men cross-dressing as women, paying smugglers to whisk them out and one almost drowning as he tried to cross a river that runs along the border with Hungary this month.
Ukrainian authorities say 66,374 men exited the country in 2022 using documents that allow volunteers and humanitarian-aid workers to leave, provided they come back within a specified period. More than 9,300 of them haven’t returned, the figures show.
Various schemes have helped men flee, often costing thousands of dollars. They include buying a passenger seat alongside a long-haul truck driver leaving the country, bribing a doctor to issue an exemption, or enrolling at a university using fake documents, according to men interviewed by the Journal who have researched them.
A 37-year-old native of Kyiv left Ukraine in February after paying close to $10,000 for three different schemes. He had owned a small business selling car parts in the Ukrainian capital but said it fell apart when the war started.
The man said he first paid $2,500 for a student card from a Warsaw university, and an official spot on one of the university’s courses. But the day after he received the card in September, Ukraine said it was no longer allowing male students to leave. A friend had a contact at a draft office, and the businessman paid the contact $3,000 for documents listing him as unfit for service. The contact took his money and stopped answering his calls, he said.
In the end, he acquired a document listing him as a volunteer aid worker, traveled to the Polish border at night and spent an hour convincing a guard that he wasn’t trying to flee before finally being allowed to enter Poland.
“For the first time in a year I felt free, like my life again belonged to me,” he said in a phone interview from Canada, where he is building a new life with his wife. He left disillusioned with Ukraine’s struggle to overcome corruption and said he wasn’t willing to fight for change.
There is still a steady flow of volunteers to the army, and many men willing to fight. Polls suggest public support for Ukraine’s defense effort hasn’t waned. But Mr. Bortnik said time might not be on Ukraine’s side as it continues to lose lives on the battlefield and discontent over conditions for soldiers grows.
“The financial incentive has gone away. Some are thinking: ‘I can earn that money myself, without risking my life,’” he said.
Особенно понравилось про менеджера криптовалютной компании в Киеве. Ржачная статья.
