Draft notices have reportedly been issued (and sometimes violently enforced) at military funerals in Lviv, checkpoints in Kharkiv, shopping centres in Kyiv and on street corners in Odessa
There has always been a disconnect between Ukrainian law and practice. That gap has grown larger in wartime, as the military bureaucracy struggles to keep pace with increased demands. The drafting process has become particularly suspect in recent weeks, says Andrii Novak, a lawyer representing several draftees. “A draft notice has to be addressed to a particular person, and that person has to be on a list,” he says.
Not all who get draft notices are actually inducted; sometimes the notices are simply a way to get every potential recruit on the books. Even for those who get one, there are ways of getting around it. There are legal exemptions for illness and disability—either of the draftee or of a dependent. Single parents and fathers with three or more children are off the hook as well. Students can defer service. Certain professions also receive what is known locally asor protection from call-up.
In a country like Ukraine, there are inevitably less-than-legal ways to escape the call-up too. “It’s a dialectic of nature,” says Colonel Kevlyuk, who worked in the General Staff until 2021. “Wherever there is demand, you’ll always find someone to supply it.” Some arrange fictitious marriages with mothers of three or more children. Others get corrupt military doctors to issue a medical exemption. For a few thousand dollars, one can pay to be smuggled across the border.
Government officials say excesses are being addressed as they come to light. But with the army set on achieving a military breakthrough before the summer, recruitment of less-motivated Ukrainians will surely be stepped up, and scandals will probably continue. The armed forces may respond to legal challenges by improving its bureaucracy, but there are other ways to deal with them too. Informed sources say that at least two lawyers disputing draft orders have abruptly been called up themselves.
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