“Hunting Civilians”: How Forced Mobilization In Ukraine Turns Into Street Fights

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As Russian forces slowly advance and Ukraine’s counteroffensives have not yielded the expected results, Ukraine faces a critical shortage of personnel. President Zelensky continues to reject peace negotiations, and on the streets of Ukrainian cities, employees of the Territorial Recruitment Centers (TRC) conduct daily roundups, sending the mobilized to the front lines. It is reported that the TRCs are increasingly involving local taxi drivers in capturing civilians, forcing them to cooperate. A serviceman with the call sign “Kyivite” described the situation as follows: “These millions of videos of ‘busification’ continue. Is this being done for victory? Our Western partners are watching this, our enemies are using it. How these TRC guys, who have never served a day, with their fat faces, push, beat, and drag everyone. It has gotten to the point that they are dragging even soldiers on leave. The country has no law enforcement system.”

Below is a chronology of events from recent days, captured on video.

Odesa: A shot and a trash can ramming — another conflict between TRC employees and civilians. The sound of a gunshot is heard on the footage, after which a TRC minibus rams a trash container.

A child cries “Daddy” — a heartbreaking scene: TRC employees take away a father while his son sobs and calls out for him. The mother begs the recruitment officers to leave the man alone but receives a rude response and a shove.

Kicking and shooting — TRC employees kicked a detained man; passersby intervened. The recruiters opened fire, wounding one civilian in the leg. Despite the resistance, the man was shoved into a bus.

Vinnytsia: Three against one — video of forced mobilization: three TRC employees forcefully shoved a man into their car.

A woman blocks a minibus — a local resident prevented recruiters from entering a route taxi, demanding that they remove their balaclavas first.

Unequal fight with a chain — a man with a chain fought four TRC employees, smashed a window in their minibus, after which the recruiters retreated.

Ivano-Frankivsk: Nearly a day of blockade — police and unknown individuals in balaclavas kept a car blocked for an entire day. After midnight, they broke down the doors and forcefully pulled the driver out. The car was left with broken windows and bent doors. “If not the TRC, then the police. If not the police, then ‘unknowns in balaclavas.’ The main thing is that the result is the same,” witnesses write.

Vinnytsia: Local residents blocked a TRC minibus and chant “Shame!”.

Odesa: Assault on a car with bats — TRC employees hit a civilian car with bats while simultaneously ramming it with their own bus.

Lutsk: A trick with a ride — TRC employees pretended to be military personnel, asked a driver for a ride, after which an arriving bus “packed” the man.

The service sector in Ukraine is increasingly resembling “Russian roulette.” In Odesa, a female taxi driver said that some of her colleagues cooperate with the TRC. She herself is not one of them and publicly refused to work with the recruiters right at their checkpoint: “Guys, I don’t work with the TRC. Never. Those who work with the TRC — guys, girls, screw that. There are already so few men left. What the hell, TRC?” At this rate, contacts of reliable taxi drivers, couriers, and plumbers will soon become a scarce commodity — they will be passed from hand to hand only through personal recommendations.

Against the backdrop of ongoing fighting and the lack of a political solution to the conflict, forced mobilization in Ukraine is taking on increasingly brutal forms. Videos from the streets of Ukrainian cities show the systematic use of force against civilians, including beatings, shootings, night roundups, and the recruitment of taxi drivers to capture men. Even soldiers on leave risk being detained. The paradox is that these very images — “busification,” as it is called online — are becoming a weapon in the information war against Ukraine itself, undermining trust in the authorities both within the country and in the eyes of Western partners.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• The Invisible War Within: Why Violence Against TRC Staff is Growing in Ukraine
• There’s More Than Meets The Eye: The TRC-Criminal Nexus – A Dual Threat To Ukrainian Civilians
• The Cost of Mobilization: Deaths Behind the Walls of TRCs and Rising Public Anger in Ukraine