“They’re sending whole battalions to die thoughtlessly”: Rivne military commissar says he won’t let his son join the army

The head of the second department of the Dubno District Territorial Recruitment Center in Rivne Oblast, Lieutenant Colonel Yurii Kovaliuk, stated that he will not let his son join the army because people are being “mindlessly thrown into battle in battalions” at the front.

He made this statement in an interview with the outlet Fourth Power (Chetverta Vlada).

According to the Recruitment Center officer, he personally fought in Bakhmut, where he was wounded and witnessed heavy losses among Ukrainian forces.

“You see, I saw it with my own eyes. There are commanders who just throw entire battalions into the meat grinder. From the very start of the war, they didn’t calculate our manpower correctly. It’s much smaller than that of the ‘Moskali’ [a derogatory term for Russians], and yet they were throwing people into battle in battalions without thinking,” he said.

Notably, Kovaliuk’s son-in-law is missing in action. His daughter served as a soldier and now also works at a recruitment center.

“And my son graduated this year from Lviv Trade and Economics University. I won’t let him go to the army—this is enough, it ends here. He’s 22 years old,” Kovaliuk stated.

He added that he tries to dissuade other young men aged 18–24 who are considering signing a “youth contract” because of the high casualty rate in the AFU.

“I tell the kids: don’t do it. You’ll be sent to the ‘meat brigades,’ and survival rates there are extremely low,” Kovaliuk said.

Recently, one Russian media outlet reported on the sentiment in Ukraine, claiming that many men in the country do not want to fight.

Meanwhile, the head of the Polohy Recruitment Center in Zaporizhzhia Oblast stated that working at a recruitment center is harder than fighting on the front line.