Report from Ukraine by Dmitri Kovalevich, re-published here in The Multiplural World, Apr 25, 2026 (including related analyses)
Large numbers of Ukrainian men have for years risked their lives to flee the country and its ruined economy and military recruitment camps, which resemble concentration camps
(Dmitri Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English, where this report first appeared on April 25, 2026.)
In the second half of April, the terror unleashed by military recruiters across Ukraine has intensified sharply, alarming even some lawmakers from the party and governing regime of the unelected ‘president’ Volodymyr Zelensky. The daily war by the regime against Ukrainians is growing increasingly brutal with each passing month.
In light of this, there has been talk in Ukraine of ‘reforming’ the regime’s military recruitment offices. But judging by the published drafts of such reforms, the talk amounts to nothing more than a rebranding, while the practice of forcibly rounding up defiant men of military age from the country’s streets and neighbourhoods remains unchanged.
Due to several recent killings of some military recruiters and frequent cases of resistance to their forcible detentions, recruiters are now conducting their manhunts in large, armed groups, concealing their faces in order to avoid subsequent retaliations. After all, the recruiters live, shop, and send their children to school or shelters like everyone else.
Related analyses:
* Zelensky is looking for help in the Middle East. He will be disappointed, by Murad Sadygzade, in RT News, Apr 26, 2026 (Murad Sadygzade is President of the Middle East Studies Center and Visiting Lecturer at HSE University, in Moscow.) …Kiev talks about protecting others, yet it continues to ask the West for air defense systems, interceptors, artillery shells, financing, and technical assistance. A state that cannot fully protect its own skies without outside help will struggle to convince wealthy regional powers that it can become a serious security provider for them…
* [The current military situation between Russia and Ukraine is analyzed and published on April 25 by The Substack page ‘Simplicius The Thinker. The first part of the subscriber only analysis is available at the weblink.]
Artem Dmitruk, a former member of Zelensky’s party, has reflected rising tensions in two video clips he posted to Telegram on April 14. He explains, “In the first video, women stand up to protect a man being seized by recruiters and are beaten and gassed in the face for it. The man was saved, so these women are true heroes. In the second video, the recruiters are once again shown beating and taking a man, in this case who happens to be the citizen of another country, Hungary.”
Dmitruk continues, “The recruiters are simply people trying to kill you, and it is your duty to defend yourself and survive. They have no rights or authority. They are simply Zelensky’s killers, aiding and abetting a genocide against the Ukrainian people.”
Due to the catastrophic shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, caused in part by so many conscripts quickly deserting once they reach the front lines, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently told Zelensky that Germany would facilitate the return of men of military age (25 to 60) to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “We must help Ukrainian citizens who have found refuge here to make their return home easier,” Merz hypocritically declared, as if they were unable to return to Ukraine on their own should they choose to do so.
The Telegram message by the Strana.ua online news service reporting Merz’ comments adds, “As a reminder, according to media reports, the EU is currently discussing possible changes to the status of Ukrainian refugees in Europe after March 2027. One idea being considered is placing restrictions on men of military age. However, a final decision has not yet been made.”
Many Ukrainian men have risked their lives to flee Zelensky’s military recruitment camps, which resemble concentration camps. They have fled through snow-covered routes through the Carpathian Mountains or have spent vast sums of money to obtain fake travel documents. It turns out that German police may soon be rounding them up and handing them over to Zelensky’s military recruiters.
Legislator Arseniy Pushkarenko says that Ukraine doesn’t even know how many men are abroad because most of them don’t register with their respective embassies or consulates. In fact, he doesn’t know how many men of military age have left the country at all because so many have done so ‘illegally’.
According to Pushkarenko, the only way to bring Ukrainian men back to their country is to verify the legality of their departure, which must be done by the authorities in Germany and other European countries.
On social media, Ukrainian refugees in Germany are already posting that they are packing their bags and considering moving to another country before the crossings are closed to them.
Zelensky welcomed with clear approval Merz’s threat to return Ukrainian men, calling it a matter of ‘justice’. Strangely enough, this outraged his former press secretary, Yulia Mendel, who has herself left the country. Mendel points out that Zelensky himself evaded conscription during the years beginning 2014 when the regime then in power in Kiev (following the violent, paramilitary coup of February 2014) launched a civil war to block pro-autonomy movements in the Donbas region and elsewhere in Ukraine’s then-existing borders. He even took to mocking those who served, Mendel points out, adding, “Now he’s lecturing everyone about ‘justice’ while refusing to end the war because he stands to gain from it personally.”
Imprisoned legislator Alexander Dubinsky, charged with ‘treason’ and detained since November 2023, notes that Merz’s statement favoring tighter restrictions on departures of men of military age from Ukraine is the first open statement at the level of European Union leaders suggesting that Ukraine be allowed to violate the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Declaration on Civil and Political Rights, which protect the rights of people seeking relief when their rights to life and liberty are threatened.
“In Germany itself, military service is voluntary under the Constitution. It is therefore more convenient to force others into war with Russia,” Dubinsky remarks ironically.
Ukrainian opposition Telegram channels are also noting that Merz’s threats to deport Ukrainian men back to their homelands indirectly point to the crisis of depleted human resources of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, despite daily raids and seizures being conducted by military recruiters.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, like the EU leadership, has staked too much on supporting Kiev to let ‘inconveniences’ such as human rights bother him. A defeat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, or peace on Russia’s terms, would spell the end of the political careers of pro-war European leaders and would raise questions about the misuse of government funds for military purposes in Ukraine. Amidst such circumstances, European leaders may well forget about democratic norms at home, just as they turn a blind eye to the ongoing ‘busifications’ in Ukraine. (‘Busification is the now widely-used term in Ukraine to describe forcibly capturing men of military age and throwing them into buses for transport to training camps and soon thereafter to military front lines.)
The further west the front line in Ukraine moves, the greater is the likelihood that ‘busification’ will spread elsewhere in Europe.
Forced conscription has literally enriched military recruiters. For example, Strana.ua reported on April the case of Oleg Kolomiets, an officer at the Bucha Territorial Military Commissariat in the Kiev region. He officially declared his wealth to include more than one kilogram of gold bullion, worth US$ equivalent 175,000 of wealth, plus currency, gold in jewelry, and expensive cars. He explained, “This is from years of deferred wages and investments. I know how to save.” None of his other family members has had any official income for many years.
The greed of military recruiters in the Ukrainian capital is cited as the reason for intensified conscription and accompanying increase in checkpoints in the city. Wealthy men in Kiev are ‘fleeced’ like sheep several times a month, replenishing the respective gold reserves of military recruiters. The recruiters are themselves usually ‘fleeced’ with their ‘surpluses’ confiscated by the office of the country’s unelected president and those of anti-corruption officials. Each wave of intensified conscription begets replenished reserves of gold and precious metals for officials.
In April, Ukrainian media published the military commissariats’ price lists for evading conscription, citing specific cases from different regions. The cheapest option is to have one’s name removed from the recruiters’ wanted list—ranging from US$300 equivalent to US$2,000, while the most expensive such ‘fee’ is to purchase a fake disability authorization to leave Ukraine entirely. This can cost up to $50,000.
In April, Ukrainian authorities began gradually mobilizing women. First, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense launched an information campaign to recruit women for contract service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Billboards depicting women in military uniforms and bearing the slogans “Serving is a woman’s job!” and “Fighting is a woman’s job!” have been put up across the country.
Then, in several regions of Ukraine, military recruiters allegedly began ‘by mistake’ to add women to the registry of those subject to military service. After that, they began to be reported to the police as “wanted.” Following these “wanted” reports, police crews began arriving at the women’s homes and escorting them to the Recruitment Center.
As summarized by the Ukrainian analytical Telegram channel Rubicon, as Ukraine’s human resources dwindle, the authorities appear to be returning to the idea of mobilizing women. As the saying goes, they decided to boil the frog gradually so as not to provoke a sharp, indignant reaction.
Former Ukrainian TV presenter Diana Panchenko (who has left Ukraine) calls Ukrainian military registration offices a “corporation of monsters.”
She writes on Telegram on April 16, “I’ll tell you some rough figures that will horrify you. According to Dmytro Mykisha, a deputy from the ‘Servant of the People’ party (I’m specifically referring to [Volodymyr] Zelensky’s legislators), the recruitment centers extort about US$2 billion in bribes from people each year. According to estimates by international organizations, the so-called ‘Offices’ in Ukraine [the term used to describe fraudulent call centers that scam citizens of other countries by transferring money from their bank accounts] earn roughly the same amount, $2 billion a year. Ukraine has become a global hub for fraudulent call centers. Since 2022, the recruitment centers and fraudsters in Ukraine have earned up to $16 billion,” emphasizing that Ukrainian military recruiters earn more than leading officials of the giant Boeing aerospace firm.
She also said that today, Ukrainian youth dream of becoming one of a fraudster who steals money from pensioners or a terrorist who kidnaps people and demands ransom (that is, a military recruiter).
In April, American mercenary Matthew Sampson, who is fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, spoke candidly about the goals and views of these monsters, as reported by the online publication Politnavigator.
“Even if Ukraine isn’t at the top of the agenda every day, any blow against Russia is an absolute priority for the U.S. Congress. As I see it, in the global confrontation, the question is this: how can we find ways to harm Russia? Anything that harms Russia helps Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S.,” the American mercenary explains. According to him, the actions taken by the US against Venezuela and Iran are also directed against Russia, which had close ties with these countries, including in the military sphere.
In April, the European Union promised Kiev an additional 90 billion euros to support the war effort, though not immediately. This comes despite the fact that the EU is facing an energy crisis due to the US and Israeli aggression against Iran.
Following the EU announcement, the Secretary General of NATO pledged another 60 billion dollars in military aid to Kiev.
As Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Kateryna Chornohorenko, stated on April 16, renewed military aid means the war with Russia will last a long time. “We will be fighting for a long time, but turning financial resource into weapons is no trivial task. Without soldiers and without people working in the war industries, this will not work.” Chernohorenko proposes to make conscription more flexible and asymmetrical. She emphasizes that the modern Ukrainian army resembles a corporation.
Chernohorenko does not mention a specific war industry, and this is not by chance. There is almost no one left to work at Ukrainian enterprises due to conscription evasion or people leaving the country. In a number of cities, there is no personnel to pay to collect trash or fight fires.
In light of this, several cities have begun introducing compulsory labor in April. Kiev city has notified its plans to enlist the following groups for such labor: registered unemployed; unemployed, internally displaced persons; unemployed war veterans; university and vocational school students; the self-employed; pensioners under the age of 70 (voluntary); employees of enterprises not engaged in military (subject to agreement with enterprise management). Simply put, this would apply to all citizens who are not fighting in the war or manufacturing drones. However, one big catch is that rounding up such large numbers of civilians across Ukraine for such work would require thousands more soldiers or police.
As Odessa-based anarchist Vyacheslav Azarov writes in connection with the introduction of compulsory labor, current methods of military conscription clearly demonstrate that in the absence of free [unpaid] labor, authorities may also resort to similar roundups targeting those deemed to have ‘deserted’ work responsibilities. Such roundups are violations of human rights and principles of ‘free labor’.
In other words, Ukraine, as a ‘corporation’ defending the interests of Western imperialism, threatens to resort to the same methods once used by British and American slave owners when their dominance was threatened.
What is most striking about this is the fact that on April 15, the Netherlands awarded Zelensky its ‘Medal of the Four Freedoms’. The ceremony honored others. The award is based on US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 ‘Four Freedoms’ speech, outlining freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. This is so outlandish as to resemble a mockery of the Ukrainian people. The Netherlands is honoring a man who has closed the borders of Ukraine to men wishing to travel or leave the country, organized roundups across the country of unwilling military conscripts, is now attempting to impose forced labor on the rest of the citizenry, and has canceled national elections due to take place two years ago, according to the Ukraine constitution.
The Dutch government is thus showing a very peculiar understanding of freedom.
