'Mass obstruction' — Draft officers injured in Odesa following confrontation with 'civilian group'
Multiple enlistment officers were hospitalized after a "group of civilians" allegedly carried out an attack on the personnel in Odesa on Feb. 15, the Odesa Oblast Regional Recruitment Center reported.
The officers were escorting a "violator of military registration" when they were confronted by an unspecified number of civilians that engaged in "aggressive physical pressure" against the officers, the recruitment center said in a Facebook post.
The group of civilians used physical force and deployed tear gas against the servicemen, causing a variety of injuries, including chemical burns to the cornea, against the officers. The attack also damage a military vehicle and cameras.
"Instead of complying with the lawful demands of representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the crowd engaged in mass obstruction of state activities in the field of mobilization preparation," the Odesa Oblast Territorial Recruitment Center said.
Specifics were not provided as to how many officers were injured or the extent of the injuries sustained.
No arrests were reported and the full details of the incident were not immediately clear. 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.
Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, told parliament on Feb. 9 that he had received 6,127 complaints in 2025 over possible violations committed by enlistment officers. The number of complaints is nearly twice as high as in 2024, when the ombudsman received 3,312 appeals. In 2023, 514 people filed similar complaints, compared with just 18 in 2022.
Moscow has capitalized on controversies surrounding mobilization, often using propaganda to help escalate social tensions in Ukraine and further damage Ukraine's recruitment efforts.
Personnel shortages have dogged Ukraine throughout its fight against Russia. Although Ukraine adopted a major bill reforming the draft in April 2024, mobilization has slowed considerably compared to the early stages of the full-scale invasion.
In the summer of 2025, 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 attacks were viewed as an escalation in tactics, aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s mobilization efforts and fueling social unrest.
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Kateryna Hodunova
The Kyiv Independent news desk
