Ukrainian men dragged away by army recruiters during targeted raids

Ukraine's military recruiters have launched targeted raids in Kyiv, detaining those whose documents do not comply and press-ganging them into the army. 

Video footage captured the moment two men were dragged away by officers as they exited the Palace of Sports on Friday where Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy played. 

One concertgoer could be seen struggling and shouting 'Get away from me!' at three policemen as they pulled him towards the recruitment desk set up outside the venue. 

A series of raids were carried out at restaurants, clubs, bars and a concert hall in the capital city, according to reports. 

Those refusing to show documents exempting them from military service, or those whose documents were considered faulty, were dragged away. 

In the video, the man is panic-stricken as he pulls against the police officer's grip. Several women who filmed the incident on their smartphones could be hear shouting: Shame! Shame on you!'.

According to Ukraine's martial laws, all men between the ages of 25 and 60 are eligible for the army. Men aged between 18 and 60 are also banned from leaving the country. 

Due to a sever shortage of soldiers, Ukraine reduced its mobilisation age from 27 to 25 and scrapped an 'only partially eligible' loophole in April. 

Volunteers in the military must meet certain criteria to be eligible, as well as pass medical and fitness tests. 

In March 2023, it was revealed that foreign fighters who joined the Ukrainian army were not able to go home until the war ends.

Would-be recruits were having second thoughts at the Polish border after being handed contracts that effectively make them conscripts, the Daily Mail previously revealed. 

Multiple foreign fighters have been killed since the start of the war.

A former U.S. Marine was killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces after the private security firm he worked for sent him to war in April 2022.

The family of Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, of Orange County New York, confirmed that the husband and father of a seven-month-old son had died in the Ukraine fighting Russian forces.

In August 2023, a British volunteer was killed in action while fighting in Ukraine, his brother has announced.

A U.S. Army veteran was also struck and killed by a mortar shell explosion while fighting Russian forces in Ukraine.

The Telegraph reported that some Ukrainian men are so desperate to escape mobilisation that they are risking their lives to break out of the country.

Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told the newspaper: 'Mobilisation has begun to be perceived as a one-way ticket, where the only way to end service is to die or become disabled.' 

In April, the Boarder Guard Service reported that at least 30 men had died trying to flee the country since the start of the war often by drowning while trying to swim across rivers of freezing to death on mountain passes.

In January 2024, a YouGov poll found that 38 per cent of under-40s in Britain would refuse to serve in the Armed Forces in the event of a new world war, and 30 per cent said that they would not serve even if Britain was facing imminent invasion.