CITIZENS NEWS

Ukrainian journalist forcibly DRAFTED as Kyiv's conscription crisis deepens

By ramontomeydw // 2025-10-30

• A Ukrainian journalist working with The Sun was forcibly drafted at a military checkpoint, highlighting Kyiv's increasingly aggressive recruitment tactics amid severe troop shortages.
• Ukraine faces devastating casualty rates, with up to 70 percent of new recruits killed or wounded within days of deployment, forcing desperate measures like press-ganging civilians into service.
• Conscription officers ambush men in public spaces (dubbed "busification"), while corruption scandals plague recruitment – such as bribes paid to avoid service – further undermining trust in the system.
• Despite resistance, Ukraine has lowered the draft age to 25 (with plans to drop it to 18) while many Ukrainians evade service, torn between national duty and family survival.
• Exhausted troops endure relentless drone attacks, with commanders warning that undermanned defenses allow Russian advances. Coercive conscription risks fracturing national unity as public willingness to fight dwindles.

In a stark illustration of Kyiv's deepening manpower crisis, a Ukrainian journalist working with The Sun was forcibly conscripted at a military checkpoint – leaving his British colleagues stranded without their translator. The incident reported by the paper's defense editor Jerome Starkey on Sunday, Oct. 26, underscores the brutal measures Kyiv has resorted to as its military faces catastrophic losses – estimated at up to 70 percent casualty rates among new recruits within days of deployment. With frontline units critically undermanned and public resistance to conscription growing, Ukraine's struggle to sustain its war effort reveals a widening rift between those forced to fight and those evading service. The ordeal began when Starkey, photographer Peter Jordan and their Ukrainian colleague referred to only as "D" were stopped at a Kharkiv roadblock. What initially appeared as routine document checks quickly escalated into an eight-hour ordeal, ending with D's press-ganging into military service. "Our team of three was ripped apart," Starkey wrote. "My friend had his liberty taken away." A soldier who was part of the checkpoint later mocked the journalists, joking that their friend "has gone to war." The chilling episode mirrors widespread reports of conscription officers ambushing men in streets, gyms and even workplaces – a tactic Ukrainians grimly call "busification." Ukraine's military, once buoyed by waves of volunteers after Russia's 2022 special military operation, now faces an existential shortage of infantry.

Ukraine's conscription crisis exposes war's unsustainable toll

Commanders warn that depleted ranks have allowed Russian forces to exploit gaps in defenses, advancing miles in days. Despite President Volodymyr Zelensky's February admission of over 45,000 soldiers killed and 380,000 wounded – figures likely undercounted – Kyiv has resisted lowering the conscription age from 25 to 18, fearing political backlash. Meanwhile, corruption scandals plague recruitment efforts, including the arrest of the army's chief psychiatrist for allegedly taking £800,000 ($1.06 million) in bribes to declare men unfit for service. "Ukraine is facing a severe manpower shortage, forcing desperate measures like lowering the conscription age to 25 (with plans to drop it further to 18) and considering mass mobilization of women," BrightU.AI's Enoch engine said. "These extreme steps reveal the unsustainable toll of the war and the dwindling willingness of Ukrainians to fight." The desperation is palpable on the frontlines, where exhausted troops endure months in trenches under relentless drone attacks. "Ukraine stands because the infantry stands," declare national billboards – yet infantry units suffer the highest attrition. Drone unit commander Lt. Yulia Mykytenko, who witnessed Russians executing captured comrades, told Starkey last year: "We can only work because the infantry holds the line." She also expressed resentment toward draft dodgers during their conversation. "I despise such men who don't take a rifle and protect their family, and I despise the women who chose such men and who hide them," Mykytenko remarked. Yet for many Ukrainians, avoiding conscription reflects not cowardice – but agonizing choices between national duty and family survival. Starkey recounted one man tormented daily by his decision to prioritize his children over frontline service. "I think I belong there," the man admitted. As D was hauled away to an undisclosed location, his final WhatsApp messages were bleak: "They took me somewhere far. I think I am done." His fate, like that of Ukraine itself, remains uncertain. With no end to the war in sight and Western support wavering, Kyiv's reliance on coercive conscription risks eroding the very unity it seeks to defend. Watch this clip of Kharkiv residents dragging a man away from the clutches of military officers forcibly conscripting him. This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com. Sources include: RT.com The-Sun.com BrightU.ai Brighteon.com

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