'Armed with bats and metal pipes' — Casualties reported after civilians allegedly attack draft officer in Mykolaiv Oblast
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
An unspecified number of civilians allegedly carried out an attack on Aug. 3 against a recruitment officer in the village of Buzke in Mykolaiv Oblast, the regional Territorial Recruitment Center reported.
The unidentified civilians "armed with bats and metal pipes, damaged a vehicle and inflicted bodily injuries on a soldier" as the officer was attending to enlistment activities, officials allege. In response to the incident, a serviceman fired a non-lethal weapon at the civilians, allegedly in self-defense.
The incident left an unspecified number of casualties among servicemen as well as civilians, officials reported. The status of the injured victims was not provided.
The Kyiv Independent cannot immediately verify the details surrounding the incident.
Since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, incidents targeting recruitment officers and centers have occurred in various parts of Ukraine.
As Ukraine steps up its mobilization efforts, draft offices are often accused, at times justly, of forced conscription without compliance with fundamental civil rights and ill-treatment of conscripts.
On Aug. 1, protesters gathered in the city of Vinnytsia to demand the release of men detained by military enlistment offices and broke into a stadium where the detainees were being held. The police arrested some of the demonstrators.
Reports on mobilization in Ukraine are often used by Russian propaganda to help escalate social tensions in Ukraine and further damage Ukraine's recruitment efforts.
In June and July, Russian forces launched several strikes on enlistment offices in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Kremenchuk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian and military casualties.
These recent attacks are viewed as an escalation in tactics, aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and fueling social unrest.
