Rest easy all ye lovers of Ukrainian democracy, for Trump seems to want the war to continue. The millions of Ukrainian men banned from leaving the country and forced to die in this unwinnable conflict can continue enjoying themselves.
Yesterday’s post looked at the militaristic radicalization of the Ukrainian elite, with their calls to revoke citizenship from all Ukrainians that ‘spread enemy propaganda’, and their statements that students killed by Russian missiles were an example of ‘karma’, since the students were ‘draft dodgers’.
Now, we’ll move onto the impotent, abused citizens of this heartland of freedom. The wide-ranging menu of technological and coercive tools at the state’s disposal makes attempts at escape the most popular reaction, though some have also been fighting back. Today’s topics include:
— Broken skulls and heart attacks - sons and mothers killed by mobilization
—Woman convicted for sharing anti-mobilization content online
—Ukrainians support Russian drone strikes on mobilization centers and share locations of the ‘rats’
—Death to the unpatriotic: One nationalist colonel declares his new initiative to send Russia the addresses of draft dodgers and ‘traitors’ under the guise of sending the location of a mobilization center.
— The guilty Bali holidays of the tech businessman who created the mobilization app
— Rumors that the mobilization app uses Indian spyware banned in the US
— A 19-year old from a poor family is detained by border patrol at the EU border and charged - his 19th attempt to escape Ukraine
— Poverty levels rise. Ukrainian ministers admit that the minimum wage of $72 USD a month is biologically impossible
— Record low levels of schoolchildren and desperate government attempts to halt the outflow of youth as parents fear the mobilization of their children
This July 8 video is one of the daily examples of mobilization officers beating one of their latest victims and dragging him into their beloved minibus.
This took place in Dryhlov, Zhytomyr oblast - apparently, the man had documents proving his exemption from the draft, but this didn’t satisfy the press gang. Far from impossible, given the July 4 statement by the impotent Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova that many are reporting the TSK ignores medical certificates legally exempting individuals from military service.
On July 8, this video of a mother trying to stop mobilization press gangs (TSK) from stealing her son appeared on Ukrainian social media. It took place in the town of Merefo, near Kharkov. The elderly woman can be seen clinging onto the moving minibus her son had been shoved into, until a man dressed in military clothing comes out to push her away. She then collapses in the middle of the road.
Social media users claim that she died of a heart attack.
For their part, the Kharkiv regional TSK stated soon after that the incident had taken place, but that TSK officers ‘did nothing illegal’. They also claimed that the woman had merely been hospitalized, but was not dead.
Of course, it is usually men who die in the mobilization process. I wrote a few weeks ago about the case of Maksym Muzychko, a young man severely beaten by TSK (mobilization) officers in mid-June.
On July 7, his wife reported he had died after days in reanimation, battling meningitis and pneumonia. The mobilization authorities and policies claimed he had jumped out of a car on the way to a training base, while his relatives claimed he had been beaten. Myzuchko’s father ‘disappeared’ while fighting near Pokrovsk in 2024.
Relatives shared grisly details of Myzuchko’s encounter with the mobilization press gangs:
the animals jumped on his head until it cracked and dragged his open skull across the ground. They waited until he’d die, but he managed to fight for 25 days.
As you can see, his head was bandaged. His black eye hardly conforms to the official story of ‘jumping out of a moving car’.
Maksym himself was a volunteer who helped the army. While he was in hospital, his wife published statements from frontline soldiers praising the help they had received from him, and hoping he would recover.
As the army is increasingly filled with mobilized soldiers, hatred against the TSK (mobilization personnel) grows among those with weapons at the frontlines. A topic for a future article.
Criticism, however, is a punishable offence. On June 29, a woman was convicted in the western Volhyn region for making anti-mobilization social media posts:
According to court materials, in the autumn of 2024, the defendant posted information in a Telegram chat with over 3,800 members about the movements of Ukrainian Armed Forces mobile units, including their locations at checkpoints and addresses where draft notices were being distributed.
In her messages, she included specific details, for example: "A light grey car with a conscription team near the kiosks at the railway station. They’re checking men. A big guy yelled at them, humiliated them, and they left empty-handed" (original wording preserved).
The court classified the woman’s actions as obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during a special period.
For this offense, she was sentenced to five years of imprisonment. However, due to her cooperation with the investigation, admission of guilt, and a plea deal with the prosecutor, the court replaced the actual prison term with a two-year suspended sentence.
In addition, the court ordered the confiscation of the mobile phone used to disseminate the information and required the defendant to pay a fine of 2,000 hryvnias.
