Russian occupiers have forcibly conscripted between 55,000 to 60,000 men in Ukraine’s occupied territories since early 2022, a Ukrainian military intelligence official said in an interview with RFE/RL.
Andrii Cherniak of the Chief Intelligence Directorate accused Russia of “violent mobilization,” grabbing people off streets and from workplaces to send them untrained straight to the frontlines.
Promises of second or third-line duty were false, he said. Even students were rounded up, with no time to prepare.
“A person went to class in the morning – and two days later he is already fighting,” Chernyak noted.
He argued Russia does not consider lives in Donbas and Luhansk valuable, flouting laws and putting seized civilians directly in harm’s way. Surrendering at the first chance is often the only way to survive, he assessed.
In June, Ukrainian resistance monitors also reported Russia was forming illegal armed groups to compel participation. Despite heavy losses, constant mobilization enables Russia to replenish forces, intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov recently remarked.
