hen Pavlo Pimakhov and Yuriy Pikhota walk through the suburbs of Kyiv, men who spot them approaching from afar often turn on their heels and scurry off. The military uniforms, the police escort and the black folder tucked under Pikhota’s arm combine to make the pair immediately recognisable: they are one of the Ukrainian army’s mobilisation squads.checking the papers of men and handing out military summonses, as Ukraine tries to boost the ranks of its army to continue the fight against Russia.
Facing a Russian army that has superior numbers and weaponry stocks, and with Ukrainian troops at the front depleted and in need of rotation, the government has been attempting to step up the mobilisation drive over recent months. New legislation came into force in May requiring every man aged between 25 and 60 to register their information with the military authorities for a possible call-up.
Others were less phlegmatic. One man, sitting on a bench with his wife drinking an iced coffee, signed the form with a shaky hand after a 20-minute dispute. Two food delivery couriers, resting by their bikes near an underpass, looked horrified when presented with papers and began making panicked phone calls. One was wearing camouflage trousers and a T-shirt with a Ukrainian army logo. “He’s wearing that T-shirt but he never had anything to do with the army,” Pikhota said in disgust.
There is also a widespread belief that the mobilising officers have bribed their way into the job and are shirking “real” military duty at the front. Pimakhov said this was not true. “There are 10 people in our group, we only take people who were formerly at the front. I think people who weren’t at the front themselves don’t have the moral right to mobilise others.”
Sometimes they try to justify their combat credentials to the people insulting them; other times they simply sigh and move on. “It’s emotionally very difficult. Sometimes by the end of the day my hands are shaking as much as they were at the frontline,” Pikhota said.
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