Young men stay at home. Afraid of being conscripted – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

A new law will make it easier for the Ukrainian defense to get more soldiers to the front. The age limit for enlistment has been lowered from 27 years to 25 years.

It is now also more difficult to get an exemption due to a socially critical job.

In the big city of Odesa, young men say that they have been forcibly summoned to the streets.

One who wishes to remain anonymous and whom we call “Maxim”, did not escape either, although he says he is blind in one eye.

– The ophthalmologist asked me to close one eye and tell what I saw. I replied that I didn’t see anything. Nevertheless, he wrote that I was combative, says “Maxim” to NRK.

Paying to drop the defense

“Maxim” still escaped being sent to the front after the eye examination. Not because he was blind in one eye, but because he paid off.

– You have to pay the right people, he says one early morning in Odesa.

Today, “Maxim” does not dare to move outside in the street during the day. He leaves the house before six in the morning. Before the military has set up checkpoints.

Mobile checkpoints

Two hours after the conscientious objector has arrived at work, a military patrol has appeared outside his house. A group of soldiers stops cars and checks identity papers.

When the bus stops at a red light, the soldiers get on board and look for new men to enlist at the front.

Such mobile checkpoints consist of both police and soldiers. They are seen all over Odesa.

The new mobilization act gives both the police, the military and regional authorities the task of enlisting soldiers.

Need soldiers

President Zelenskyy signed a mobilization law this week. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the law change could provide 50,000 soldiers to the army.

The law is controversial because it does not have a maximum limit on how long one must be enrolled before one is graduated.

This is a regulation that the Ukrainian defense wanted, and it got the parliament to remove the maximum limit of three years.

The Ministry of Defense claims that the military will be weakened by soldiers being discharged.

– At the moment we cannot weaken the defense forces, said the spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Dmytro Lazutkin, this week.

Today, Ukraine has around 850,000 soldiers. Last fall estimated American sources that 70,000 had been killed and 120,000 injured since the invasion almost two years ago.

At the same time, many thousands of men who do not want to fight have fled the country or obtained exemptions by paying corrupt recruiting officers.

People are scared

– It’s terrible. People are very scared. When I walk across the street and see the police, I turn around and go another way, says Alex to NRK.

He has a good job and thinks it can save him from being drafted. He is happy that he has a home office and does not have to leave the house during the day.

He says that people like to be recruited on the bus and at the train station.

– It is not safe. The military is breaking the law. They take people in, even if they are not healthy enough to be sent to the front, says Alex.

He is strongly against the law, because people who can pay off get away. Those who are poor and cannot afford to bribe the conscription patrol must go to the front.

Alex tells about a 14-year-old who was recently enlisted in Odesa.

Certain death

People NRK meets in Odesa tell stories about what happens to those who are now conscripted.

The man, whom we call “Maxim”, says that the training period is one to three months. The payment is a few thousand Ukrainian hryvnias or around NOK 1,000-2,000 a month.

“Maxim” is afraid of imminent death.

– Of course I’m scared. There is only one way here. You come back either dead or disabled, says “Maxim”.