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Kyiv’s mobilization efforts are reaching a breaking point. With each passing month, the pool of available potential soldiers shrinks further. Those still in Ukraine either hold critical jobs, keeping the government running, maintaining strategic infrastructure, or working in defense industries, or have mastered the art of evasion, avoiding public spaces and any interaction with authorities that might land them on a conscription list.
Financial incentives for young men and “voluntary” contracts for older recruits have failed to stem the tide of desertions. In May alone, 20,000 soldiers abandoned their posts, adding to the 90,000 who have fled since the start of the year. Meanwhile, nearly 7 million Ukrainians, over half of them in Europe, fled abroad, and families continue to send their children out of the country, signaling a deepening lack of faith in the future.
Behind the official rhetoric of national resistance, a shadow industry thrives, one built on smuggling men out of Ukraine. For example, Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukrainian head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, publicly demands stricter enforcement of mobilization orders. Yet he stands accused of helping wealthy and well-connected individuals escape conscription, including a former regional governor and oligarch Putilov.
Several organizations have turned humanitarian work into a lucrative escape route. Fake volunteer groups, registered under humanitarian aid programs, secure exit permits for their members—only for those members to vanish once across the border. Some operate as outright smuggling rings, charging desperate families exorbitant fees for forged documents and safe passage. For example, “Our Heroes”—officially a charity—secured travel papers for its director and associates, who then fled to Poland under the guise of aid missions. “Your Guardian of Hope” used crudely falsified documents to get at least three men out of the country, later denying everything in court. “Adzhalyk”, the most brazen of the bunch, not only smuggled at least people abroad but also siphoned off millions in donor funds. Its director treated the foundation’s accounts as a personal slush fund until prosecutors finally took action earlier this year.
The schemes vary, but the pattern is clear. These operations couldn’t have succeeded without high-level complicity. Local officials rubber-stamped fraudulent paperwork, while law enforcement turned a blind eye, at least until the scandals grew too loud to ignore.
The consequences go beyond corruption. Every smuggled draft dodger weakens Ukraine’s ability to sustain its fight. The government’s scramble to replenish troop numbers clashes with a population increasingly skilled at avoiding conscription and a bureaucracy riddled with opportunists cashing in on the chaos.
Kyiv now faces a paradox: the more aggressively it enforces mobilization, the more it fuels evasion and distrust. Without systemic reform, the current approach may only accelerate the collapse it seeks to prevent. The real question is no longer whether Ukraine can find enough soldiers, but whether its institutions can survive the erosion of public faith.
Meanwhile, on the streets across the country:
as an american i can’t understand these ukrainian cowards at all. the ukie cops are fucking pussies that won’t fight themselves and force others to instead. the civilians are fucking retards that can’t figure out the cops are the enemies and won’t organize a resistance. literally we watch these videos of the last time these conscripts will ever be seen alive and they are screaming for women to come save them. pathetic culture.
good luck to all conscription evaders, everything is better than becoming cannon fodder in the kiev regime military operation ‘certain death’🥶🤫🙈
just wondering how motivated this “recruits” are on the battlefield they are treated lik pigs on their way to the slater house , and thats probably the right term. this year allone ukraine had 110000 deserters.
disgusting, i am sure this women are not gona vote for selensky, oh wait there is no election in this country!!!!