The growing number of Ukrainians who do not want to fight for their country in the war against Russia

Ukraine it is having difficulty meeting its demand for soldiers.

Volunteers are not enough. The country constantly needs to replace the tens of thousands of dead and wounded. Many soldiers are exhausted after 18 months fighting the full-scale invasion of Russia.

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However, some men do not want to fight. Thousands have fled the country, sometimes after bribing officials, and others are seeking ways around recruiting officers, who have been accused of increasingly harsh tactics.

“The system is very outdated”says Yehor, who watched his father suffer from mental health problems after fighting with the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

That’s why he doesn’t want to fight. You have asked that we withhold your real name to protect your identity.

Before the Russian invasion, men who did not want to do military service because of their religious beliefs were offered an alternativesuch as working in agriculture or in social services.

Many Ukrainians have volunteered to fight, but there are still fewer. (GETTY IMAGES).

That option disappeared with the start of martial law last year.but Yehor believes that it should continue to exist, regardless of people’s reasons.

“Every situation is different,” Yehor argues. “The fact that it is written in the Constitution that all male citizens must fight is not in line, in my opinion, with current values.”

He was recently sent to a recruitment center after being detained by police in Kyiv, who accused him of evading compulsory military service. In the end they allowed him to go home, claiming that he had back problems. He fears that next time it won’t be like that.

There are exemptions from the service, such as being in poor health, being a single parent, or caring for someone vulnerable. However, those convicted of circumventing the service face fines or even three years in jail.

“Everyone should be able to contribute to this war considering their situation,” Yehor says. “I feel sorry for the people on the front lines, but I don’t have a pacifist alternative.”

“Shameful and unacceptable” crimes

The way Kyiv recruits men has been accused of being corrupt at its core.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the regional recruitment chiefs Ukraine following widespread accusations against system officials, including taking bribes and intimidation.

The family of an Odessa military recruiter chief was even accused of buying millions of dollars’ worth of cars and property on the southern coast of Spain. Apparently, the officer denies having knowledge of these facts.

Defense officials have told the BBC that the alleged crimes are “shameful and unacceptable.”

In addition, there have been reports of officers using harsh or intimidating tactics. There are also reports of recruits finding themselves at the front with only a month of training.

Most of the men under 60 years of age who try to evade being recruited cannot leave the country due to difficulties in getting around. Thousands try to slip away, mostly through the Carpathians into Romania.

For those who stay, the mass chat groups help them avoid being recruited. Telegram threads give clues about where recruiting agents patrol. There are chats for different regions and cities across the country, sometimes with more than 100,000 members each.

These recruiting agents are known as Olivas, after the color of their uniforms. They usually give those they meet orders to register at a recruitment center, but there are reports that some are taken away on the spot, with no chance to return home.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense urges people to keep their data up to date in a national database and states that if they are called up they will be sent to a suitable destination.

The authorities seem determined to restore confidence.

“It’s okay to be afraid”is the slogan of his latest information campaign, which tries to establish parallels between the fears of childhood and the concerns of today.

“I have to prepare to go to war”

In an abandoned Kyiv summer camp, civilians are trained to resist Russian soldiersin case of need.

They patrol the roads before an instructor yells, “Second group! Grenade!” The men and women rush to the ground.

Their rifles are not real, but there is hope that some of the participants will join the troops. Anton, a 22-year-old student, has already made up his mind.

“When the war began, I was not prepared to be recruited”he tells me during a training break.

“Now I have to prepare myself to go to war in the future,” he adds.

Anton doesn’t think it’s a good thing for people to avoid the draft. However, he understands that someone may not want to fight.

I ask him if the prospect scares him.

“Of course,” he replies, almost cutting me off. “Everyone is afraid. But if the situation gets worse, there is no way I will be sitting here in Kyiv.”

Ukraine has defied all expectations in its defense against a full-scale invasion by Russia.

Moscow has been forced to go from taking over the entire country to trying to hold on to a fifth.

Ukraine, in turn, is having to do its own recalibrations.

Not only with his own counteroffensive, which is progressing more slowly than many expected, but also with the way he motivates his citizens to fight.

There is an undeniable necessity, but also an uncomfortable truth, in the fact that the battlefield is not for everyone.

Additional reporting by Hanna Chornous, Anastasiia Levchenko, Kate Peevor, and Hanna Tsyba

Source: Elcomercio