War of all against the mobilization office
Hare Krishna to the front, suicides and suicide attempts, knives, grenades and pepper spray
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
The government has made it clear that religious reasons won’t not allow Ukrainians to avoid military service. On May 30, the director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group on Human Rights, Oleksandr Pavlichenko, stated in an interview with telegraph that religious convictions will not be considered by a court of law as legitimate reason to evade service.
As if to prove that, members of the Hare Krishna group were mobilized in the Zakarpatya region on the same day. The videos of the believers getting mobilized and then in the mobilization office speak for themselves.
In the western Chernivtsi region, a man used pepper spray against mobilization officers on May 31. This was reported on the facebook page of the regional police. The man inflicted injuries on the mobilization officers and was handed in to the police.
In the eastern city of Dnepropetrovsk/Dnepr, unknown men attacked a military medic sitting in his car (May 18). He was mistaken for mobilization officers (TCC). He was beaten and sprayed with pepper spray. The attackers yelled ‘TCC faggot’. His minibus resembled those infamously used by mobilization officers.
In Kremenchug, a mobilization bus was found burnt on May 31. The white cross is the the AFU sign. It was clearly burnt while parked.
An F-1 grenade was thrown at the house belonging to a mobilization inspector in Cherkassy region early morning on May 31. It exploded and damaged the house but not any of the inhabitants. The culprit has not been identified.
On May 18, a man attacked a mobilization officer with a knife in the Dnepro region. Commenting the incident, the AFU on its facebook page blamed the obvious culprits:
this crime occurred precisely under the influence of Rascist propaganda media resources, which spread false information about the 'illegality of the TCC', 'illegitimacy' of the authorities' actions regarding military registration and notification, 'illegality' of handing out summonses, etc., and about the 'non-obligation' to fulfill the constitutional duty to protect the homeland in general.
On March 23, a 50 year old man attacked a mobilization officer with a knife in the western Volhyn region, leading to serious injuries. It happened then TCC officers came to his home to demand why he hadn’t responded to summonses.
Suicides
Knives aren’t only being used against TCC officers. In Kiev, a young man (Stanlislav Moskovskyi) was captured by TCC officers, beaten, imprisoned all night, was not allowed to call a lawyer, and had his personal items removed. He was forced to take a medical exam in the nearby neighborhood of Vishneve.
Moskovskiy was then told by the TCC officers that the medical exam had shown he was fit to serve and would soon join the army. Following that news, he opened his veins with a knife. To solve the problem, the TCC officers dumped him by the road. Which is where his lawyer eventually found him.
He managed to survive, and his lawyer has opened a case against the officers on the basis of ‘pushing to suicide’. His and his lawyer note that already before his encounter with the TCC, Moskowskiy struggled with serious psychological problems. The TCC office denies responsibility and accuses him of running away from his responsibilities.
The director of Kiev’s no.81 school killed herself on May 28, throwing herself out of a window.
Galina Todosova, an education official, gave the following context:
Tatyana Vladimirovna's son was mobilized and immediately sent to Mykolaiv. She took it very close to heart, very close. She even took leave because she couldn't think about work.
Social media users also speculated that a shocking event in April 22 at her school could have also played a role. A 13 year old boy was brutally beaten by his peers. Some social media reports claimed that it was because he was watching a Russian-language cartoon.
He tried to hide the injuries from his mother for 10 days, but eventually she found out because of his hugely swollen right leg. He had also been kicked badly in the groin. His mother stated the following - He has already undergone surgery because he had a hematoma, hydrocele of the testicle, and a rupture of the testicle's membrane.
Corruption and demoralization
Yet another leader of the Odessa regional TCC has been fired. On May 31, Oleksandr Okhrimenko was fired from his position. In 2023, the previous head of the Odessa regional TCC was arrested, Evgeniy Borisov. He was accused of large scale corruption and his court case continues.
Top militar(ist) journalist Butusov complained about the incompetency of mobilized soldiers on 28 May. In his words, during the battles for Volchansk, more than 100 men were sent as reinforcements to the 125th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, it turned out that these people were unfit for service, and only three of them were enlisted in the brigade, although reports at all levels already stated that "the brigade is being well replenished."
AFU major Serhiy Alimov expressed a similar opinion in a May 26 interview with top Ukrainian journalist Natalia Mosiychuk. He stated that mobilized men don’t want to fight and only make things more difficult.
"People from the TCC minibuses come to our trench, and what are we supposed to do with them? He says, 'I won't go.' Now in the training centers, they stand and also say, 'I won't go,'
The officer mentioned that the TCC began using the practice of sending military commissioners from one region to another.
"The Odessa TCC gang came to Drohobych. They got drunk somewhere in the evening and started to boss everyone around. They called the police, who came, looked around, and left. Soon, no one will show up for service. The streets will be as empty as they were in 2022,"
Alimov claimed that due to the actions of the TCC, military personnel are trying not to wear their uniforms in the capital to avoid being mistaken for mobilization officers.
"All this will end with a new Vradiyivka," Alimov stated. This refers to the riot in 2013 in the Mykolaiv region after police officers raped a girl, an event which played an important role in feeding public resentment and distrust in law enforcement in the leadup to the 2014 euromaidan.
On that topic, the State Bureau of Investigations has launched an investigation into inadequate defensive lines by the very same 125th brigade in the Kharkov region that allowed Russian forces to break through. Media reports indicate 28 commanders are being charged.