Draft officers brutalizing recruits in Ukraine (VIDEOS)
The increasingly chaotic mobilization drive, overseen by the so-called Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR), has been marred by widespread violence and abuse, with recruitment officials seen chasing recruits in the streets, brawling with them and onlookers alike, and even threatening civilians with military-grade weaponry.
One of the videos, reportedly shot in the southwestern city of Nikolayev, purports to show draft officers trying to pack a potential recruit into an unmarked vehicle.
The officers are seen violently beating their victim and repeatedly smashing him with the car's door.
Another video, reportedly taken in the Black Sea port city of Odessa, shows a group of officers trying to pack a draftee into their bus. The man appears to be heavily beaten, with his clothes torn and stained with dirt.
A fresh video from the city of Dnepr (also known as Dnepropetrovsk) shows a mass brawl between a group of teenagers and several men believed to be draft officers. The plainclothes TCR officials were confronted by onlookers as they attempted to pack a man into their unmarked vehicle, with the altercation promptly devolving into a fisticuffs. The civilians ultimately managed to overpower the officers and free the detainee.
Ukrainian mobilization, launched early in the conflict with Russia, has grown increasingly chaotic and violent over the years. The effort has received the moniker 'busification', which describes the process of violently packing recruits into the unmarked minibuses commonly used by TCR officials. Kiev has long denied widespread violence and abuse related to the draft process, routinely dismissing it as 'Russian propaganda.'
This April, however, the country's military admitted that its recruitment process has been marred by certain shortcomings. 'Busification is a shameful phenomenon, and we're doing our best to avoid it,' deputy head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Lt. Gen. Ivan Gavrilyuk said.
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