Click to see the full-size image
Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
It is a well-known fact that Ukraine has been struggling to meet its demand for soldiers amid the ongoing conflict – in spite of the current ban on the departure of all men aged between 18 and 60. In the West, not much has been written, though, on Kiev’s most recent mobilization efforts. The country is in fact taking drastic and desperate measures, such as mobilizing men over 50 years old and even those who would normally be deemed as physically unfit for service. In addition, it is turning to its European partners with requests to extradite expatriate Ukrainians dodging conscription – considering European rules and regulations and euro-bureaucracy, satisfying Ukrainian military appetite for badly needed men will of course be no easy task. It is also not clear how much help unwilling demotivated unfit or over-aged men will provide.
Elene Petrova writes that military authorities are carrying out drafting campaigns in Kiev. One morning, a hostel (known to host many men who go to the capital looking for work) was “blocked” by authorities and everyone there was enlisted – no exception. A woman, she reports, cried about her husband, well over 50 being “taken away”. Many men indeed are being missed by their wives: many are killed or injured, and many are leaving the country. Pentagon documents, recently leaked, estimate the number of Ukrainians killed at 70,000. The wounded could be anything from 100,000 to 120,000, depending on the source.
From a Western perspective, this conflict has largely been a US proxy attrition war against Russia – but it has been backfiring. The West added fuel to the fire by its “triple package”, in political scientist John Mearsheimer’s words, of “NATO enlargement, EU expansion”, and so-called “democracy promotion” in Ukraine – not to mention by supporting and encouraging the neo-fascist and even neo-Nazi elements amongst the 2014 Maidan militias, many of which became a part of the Ukrainian National Guard, such as the infamous Azov Regiment. This is the larger context of the Donbass war that has been going on for almost a decade now.
Former US ambassador to Finland, Earle Mack, who has visited Ukraine several times, on humanitarian missions, predicts that Ukrainians are approaching “a decade of death and chaos”, with over 10 million having left the country. About 5.5 million from Ukraine and Donbass have fled to Russia, many of them with no intention of going back home. The dramatic loss of population plus the damaged infrastructure are exhausting the country. The emotional and psychosocial factor should not be underestimated. An August recruitment campaign urged military-age citizens to “overcome their fear”, but the population is growing weary.
Draft evasion schemes abound today. According to Ukrainian media, last month, for instance, a Ukrainian Military Commissariat’s official and a number of accomplices were charged with illegal smuggling across the Ternopil Oblast border and with document forgery. Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation also reported arresting a corrupt Kiev City Military Administration official for helping draft-age men evade mobilization (by leaving the country) in exchange for cash. According to a BBC news report, the family of a Ukrainian military chief in Odessa was recently accused of purchasing expensive vehicles and property worth millions of dollars on Spain’s southern coast.
Euronews reports that, according to a State Border Guard source, 13600 people have been detained trying to cross the border, since the beginning of the current conflict. The figures could be much higher. In an August 15 piece, the Guardian detailed how Ukrainian men are willing to spend their life savings to stay out of the conflict by paying bribes and so on. We are talking about Europe’s most corrupt nation: respected Ukrainian economist Oleh Havrylyshyn has estimated that the country’s level of corruption is comparable to that of Uganda, both states being ranked at the very high corruption level (142).
As I have written, lots of cash have been flowing into the Eastern European country, and large portions of these sums are allegedly being diverted for various corruption schemes, in a series of scandals that could also spill over Washington policy-makers. In a similar way, a large part of the Western weapons sent to Kiev are ending up in Africa and the Middle East, through black markets – the situation being so serious the Pentagon cannot account for billions worth of arms.
Ukrainian tremendously high corruption can thrive also thanks to Western private and shady interests. American weapons manufacturers, for one thing, would profit from making the conflict perpetual.
Corruption is often analogous to a “total social fact” (in Maussian social theory parlance) – when it reaches such high levels, it tends to permeate the whole social fabric of a given country and its institutions. Thus, it is hardly surprising that a black market pertaining to draft evasion has emerged and with the latest strict measures one can expect it to increase.
In late December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky famously claimed it would take no less than $1 trillion to rebuild his country and much of the Western money sent to Ukraine has been flowing under the banner of “reconstruction”. It is quite strange to talk about rebuilding anything when the West itself rejects any peace plan as it would require some compromise and diplomatic engagement with Russia. Washington instead is thus far content to fight “to the last Ukrainian”.
now nazis are taking even women and the elderly. what’s next? kids? oh pedo j. biden would love to touch some of them before they go to front
us should give back the ukrainian atomic weapons to ukraine. those atomic weapons they forced ukraine to abandon in the 90’s. ukraine with atomic weapons would not have being attacked by russia. same reason usa not attacks north korea or pakistan or russia directly !
ukrainians (corrupt as they are) would sell it immediately to the highest bidder. as they know that if they even think to use it it would be an end of both ukraine and us of drag queens like you.
the us did not take those weapons, they were sent to russia. maybe kiev could ask them back from russia?
yes that’s why i wrote: ” weapons they forced ukraine to abandon in the 90’s”. these are gone (because they went to russia), but usa has atomic weapons too, and could easily replace them. so had usa given the amount of a-bombs to ukraine in 2014 which it forced it to abandon in the 90’s then putin would not have dared attacking ukraine in the first place. that was my point.
why use the us propaganda number of 70,000 dead? numerous authoritative sources are stating 400,000+ ukrainian dead, many buried in trenches.
whole war is only possible, because us-jews took away the atomic weapons from ukraine back in the 90’s. with ukraine still possessing atomic weapons, putin (if he wasn t a jew too, and in cahoots with the us-jews) would never have dared to attack ukraine.
oh, you are an azov zionist drag queen! shalom my brother!
sad, ukraine cannot rid itself of nazified pigs, someone else has to do the job.
this sf communist article is more than schizophrenic, they claim that it is a sign of desperation that ukraine mobilizes men of 50 years, wherefore in russia they do it too, even older – so who is the desperate one ? it’s absolutely mind-boggling how stupid the sf propaganda is. they always shoot themselves into the foot ! hahah
they mobilize men above fifty in russia? where and when? is mother teresa your prison call sign? when you arrived to you prison cell, did they ask you what you gonna be, mother or father? what was your first night like? do you want to repeat that experience? why all trolls here always hahahing? is that your sign of mutual recognition?
fair argument. all the nazi pigs have are insults and derogatory comments. zero logic, zero information.
maybe if ukrainian generals and their president weren’t so utterly callous in spending the lives of their men they wouldn’t be needing to round up every men they could find.