in Ukraine, the army patrols in search of soldiers to renew the workforce

Many Ukrainians assert their right of exemption to escape mobilization.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky partly obtained what he was looking for last week in the United States. Washington has pledged to supply new weapons to Ukraine. But there is one thing that the Western allies cannot give, and that is men to go and fight on the front. Since the outbreak of war, kyiv has enlisted nearly 500 000 civilians in his army. This is not enough, so we must track down those who try to escape conscription, by hiding or remaining discreet. This is the job of military police stations which patrol the towns looking for these men.

The white cars of the military police station are well known in Lviv, and inspire fear. Soldier Maxime is at the wheel and looking for men aged 25 to 50 : “There, you see, there is a young man. We are going to stop to check on him.” Maxime questions him : “You have your military documents with you ?” He continues : “I’m looking for your name in the database. You have renewed your data ? And the obligatory medical commission ?” The man is 40 years old, he feverishly takes out all his papers and claims to be a student. He cannot be mobilized immediately, just like fathers of three children or disabled people.

“So you are studying ? You have your student card ?”continues Maxime. The forty-year-old holds out his card, his hands trembling, but everything is in order. He can leave under the mocking eye of soldiers from the military police station who encounter students over 40 years old every day. : “Those who had not studied before the war are now trying to enroll in higher education to have an exemption during this period.”

Taras is an officer in the Lviv military commissariat : “Among families who had two children at the start of the war, many had a third child to take advantage of the right of exemption. This is a very widespread phenomenon.” The checks follow one another. There a father of three children, in good standing. There is also a demobilized veteran in good standing.

Fraudsters are difficult to flush out, says soldier Volodymyr : “There are some who don’t even leave the house. If they’re married, it’s their wife who goes out to go shopping. They don’t move.” Tracking down Ukrainian citizens to send them to the front is a job that may seem thankless for the men of the military commissariat, but it is essential. “It’s war in our country 24 hours a day. The guys on the front, they don’t last foreverexplains Maxime. They also want to rest and so we have to replace them.” And his colleague Sergui concludes : “The more men there are in the army, the quicker our victory will be.”