Ukrainian lawyer: mobilized man missing part of his skull was released only after a year

Ukrainian lawyer Oleg Mytsyk described a case from his practice in which employees of a territorial recruitment center (TRC) drafted a man into the army who was missing a 14-square-centimeter fragment of his skull.

A video of his remarks was published by the Ukrainian outlet Novosti.Live.

“In my practice, there was a case where a person was mobilized who is missing 14 square centimeters of his skull. We got him released after a year,” Mytsyk said.

In addition to this case, the lawyer mentioned other examples of people with serious illnesses or conditions that obviously preclude fitness for service being drafted.

“Or an obvious schizophrenic. There are very many such cases,” he emphasized.

General mobilization in Ukraine has been in effect since February 2022 and has been extended multiple times since then. The authorities are taking measures to prevent men of conscription age from evading service. TRC employees have stepped up raids in public places, and footage of forced mobilization and confrontations between citizens and military commissariat representatives in various cities regularly appears on Ukrainian social media.

Men of conscription age are reportedly trying by any means to leave the country, often at risk to their lives. Open clashes between citizens and TRC employees have become so frequent that the term “busification” has emerged in society, and the military commissariat workers themselves have come to be called “manhunters.”