In the Odessa region, employees of the territorial recruiting center detained a 14-year-old teenager

In the Izmail district of the Odessa region, employees of the territorial recruitment center allegedly attempted to mobilize a 14-year-old. They violently detained him on the street, threatening him with weapons, and shoved the teenager into a van.

This was reported by Oksana Terzi, a representative of the local council.

“When they found out that the boy was only 14, they kicked him out of the van right onto the road. This happened on April 2 in the village of Priozernoye in the Suvorov community. The minor experienced physical violence, psychological, and social torture,” she said.

The boy is an orphan living with his grandmother. He says his arms were twisted on the street, and the people in military uniform had balaclavas with white jaws drawn on them.

“When the military dragged the boy into the minibus, they started pressing the barrel of a machine gun against his temple, then against his forehead because he resisted. And the child is engaged in sports, so his self-defense reaction kicked in. He began to wriggle, and the attackers subdued him, hitting him in the back with the gun. They beat him and tied his hands with plastic ties,” the official recounted.

According to her, on the way, after learning his age, they kicked the boy out of the van, threatening him with punishment if he told anyone about the incident. The teenager had to walk home for about two hours.

At school, he told about what happened. Residents of the village turned to the police, the prosecutor’s office, and the ombudsman. There is still no official reaction from the territorial recruitment center and law enforcement agencies.

Earlier, the human rights ombudsman reported that in 2023, there were over a thousand scandalous stories involving employees of territorial recruitment centers. However, no one is really punished for exceeding their authority. He explains this by saying that they “do not want to bring the situation to some real military punishment because it can be interpreted differently.”