Social media users shared stories about how military recruiters are targeting unemployed Ukrainians

Social media is abuzz with stories about a scheme used by employees of territorial recruitment centers to catch unemployed Ukrainians.

A video describing this scheme appeared on the social media platform TikTok.

According to the video’s author, military recruiters make agreements with small and medium-sized enterprises to hand over all men who apply for informal jobs (businesses are already required to report all officially employed workers to territorial recruitment centers).

One example involves a Ukrainian man who decided to work off the books as a laborer at a furniture factory. After an interview with other candidates, they were met by a minibus from the territorial recruitment center as they exited.

The video’s author alleges that the recruitment centers had an arrangement with the factory to turn over draft evaders, and in exchange, the military recruiters would not mobilize the factory’s existing employees.

“Small and medium businesses are being blackmailed into cooperating with recruitment centers to protect their own specialists,” the video claims.

Earlier, media reports noted that in Odesa, taxi drivers were hired by recruitment centers to transport those drafted.

Recently, an incident in the Lviv Territorial Recruitment Center involved forced mobilization, during which its employees reportedly kicked a civilian and forced him into a minibus.