Desperate Putin is forcing Ukrainians to fight for him

Citizens in occupied territories are being conscripted into the army ranks – a flagrant war crime

In March this year, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ordering a spring conscription into military service. The Kremlin promised that conscripts would not be sent to the front.

As is so often the case with Russia, this was a lie – one bad enough if you are Russian, but far, far worse if you are a Ukrainian living in one of the territories occupied by Russian forces. In 2022, the so-called governor of the Zaporizhzhia region, one of these regions, had already assured the public that there would be no conscription there in the coming years.

However, we can now definitively say – after much research – that Moscow has been conscripting Ukrainian youth from across the occupied territories to serve in the army. Not only that, but Ukrainian intelligence has recorded many cases in which conscripts have ended up on the front lines.

This is not just a moral crime, but a war crime.

Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), told the organisation I run from Kyiv, the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre (USCC), that at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, a group of students from Donetsk – another occupied region – were summoned to the deans’ offices of educational institutions in February and registered as recruits right there. “Literally in a week, without any training or equipment, they found themselves on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region,” Yosov said.

This is in addition to the mobilisation that has been ongoing almost continuously in the occupied parts of Donbas since the war began in 2014. Then Russia created two army corps with a total of 35,000 servicemen. In 2023, the “corps” was included in the Russian armed forces. As reported by DIU, their unit has lost its regional character, as forced mobilisation has “scooped up” all “suitable” men from various different places.

To stress, all of these territories are legally Ukrainian under international law.

The city of Mariupol, formerly Ukraine’s 10th largest city, also located in Donetsk, has seen similar Russian mobilisation efforts under the guise of “conscription”. The lack of Russian citizenship is no longer an obstacle. Immediately after being drafted, men are offered the chance to sign a contract with a payout of 200,000 rubles (around £1,700) if they are ever sent to the front.

Mobilisation activities also continue in illegally occupied Crimea. According to the Ukrainian resistance, in April 2024, the occupiers raided the local population of the Simferopol district, which happened on one of the major Muslim holidays. The goal is obvious – to recruit the most “problematic” part of the population for Russia, the Crimean Tatars. Russia is also actively trying to persuade vulnerable men to sign contracts with its army – those with debts, problems with the law, or who are in other difficult situations.

In light of the Russian offensive, personnel losses and desertions, it is evident that Moscow will continue to intensify these illegal mobilisation activities. They will carry on because they also offer another macabre advantage: providing opportunities to psychologically break those living under occupation. This applies not only to the mobilised people themselves, but also to their family members. It is just another means of waging war to the Russians.

Yet Ukrainian resistance uses the situation to their advantage – by recruiting Russian officers, passing on information and targeting Russian administrators. Most of these activities are top secret. But they are happening. Expect to see more in the coming months.

Serhiy Kuzan is a former adviser to the Ukrainian defence ministry