A crowd in Khmelnytskyi attempted to storm a military recruitment center to free a detained student

In Khmelnytskyi, several dozen people attempted to force their way onto the grounds of a territorial recruitment and manning center in order to free a detained 25-year-old student.

This was reported by the outlet Strana.

According to published video recordings, the protesters attempted to break down the gates of the recruitment center. From behind the gates, threats were made to open fire if the attempts to force entry continued. In a second video, a group of protesters is already on the grounds of the center and is discussing the detention with one of its staff members.

Since February 2022, a general mobilization has been in effect in Ukraine, which has been extended multiple times. On May 18, 2024, a law tightening mobilization requirements came into force, stripping certain categories of draft-age men of the right to benefits and deferments.

Videos of forcible mobilization and confrontations between citizens and recruitment center staff in various cities regularly appear on Ukrainian social media. The term “busification” has spread throughout society — it refers to the actions of military commissars who push people into minibuses and drive them away in an unknown direction. The recruitment center staff themselves are often called “manhunters.”

Commanders of Ukrainian Armed Forces units, for their part, complain about the low motivation and poor training of 90% of the personnel entering the army through such “mobilization measures.”