Ukraine’s mobilization drive has turned into a “shameful hunt” for the country’s own citizens, Georgy Mazurashy says
FILE PHOTO. A Ukrainian soldier collects firewood. © Getty Images / Anadolu / Ozge Elif Kizil
Kiev’s violent mobilization drive has proven to be extremely damaging to the country’s military capabilities and economy, Ukrainian MP Georgy Mazurashu has said, condemning the effort as a “shameful hunt.”
The actions of the enlistment officers “under the guise of so-called mobilization work” have been “horrifying,” Mazurashu told the Superpozitsiya YouTube channel on Tuesday, adding that the country’s soldiers are treated as “slaves.”
“This has an extremely negative impact on both the spirit of the citizens and the economy… The consequences are extremely negative and large-scale for defense capabilities,” the MP said.
The lawmaker described the mobilization effort as a “shameful hunt for citizens,” arguing that it is failing to fulfill its primary goal of replenishing the ranks of the military, which is experiencing persistent shortages of frontline “trench and assault” personnel. Some Ukrainian soldiers are so burnt-out that they even see death as a “certain relief,” the MP said, citing frontline medics he spoke with.
“The fact that there are that many burnt-out soldiers is a result of our, excuse me, retarded slave-owning Soviet system, which, unfortunately, still prevails in our armed forces, where the base-level command perceives the military as slaves, their slaves, the slaves of the system, the army, and the state itself,” Mazurashu stated.
Ukraine’s mobilization effort has grown increasingly chaotic and violent as the conflict with Russia has progressed. The process is popularly known under the moniker ‘busification,’ which describes the practice of violently packing recruits into unmarked minibuses.
The campaign has been marred by numerous instances of abuse and violence, some of which have resulted in serious injuries and even the deaths of draftees. The latest incident occurred in the city of Nikolayev on Wednesday, when a man jumped to his death from a road bridge as he attempted to flee enlistment officials.
Kiev has long denied experiencing any issues related to mobilization, routinely dismissing them as “Russian propaganda.” This year, however, the military acknowledged the process had encountered certain shortcomings. “Busification is a shameful phenomenon, and we’re doing our best to avoid it,” deputy head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Ivan Gavrilyuk, said in April.