«Busificación» y evasión del reclutamiento / “Busification” and recruitment evasion

Busification is a well-known term in Ukraine and refers to the process by which young men are detained against their will, often after a violent struggle, and forced into a vehicle—usually a minibus—to be taken to an army recruitment center,” explains former British diplomat Ian Proud in an article published by Responsible Statecraft, part of the Quincy Institute, a well-known anti-war think tank. “Why do mainstream media outlets so rarely talk about the violent busification of Ukrainian men against their will in the army? We wouldn’t tolerate this in our own countries, with our young men. Yet our leaders don’t care,” he wrote on social media to promote the article.

For some time now, soldiers on the ground have been complaining about a lack of replacements, one of their demands for amending the mobilization law, and about the state’s inability to replace casualties. Despite the need to keep the troops happy, the reform did not include the long-awaited demobilization of those who have been fighting for months in the most difficult areas of the front. In a state whose raison d’être is war, numbers are more important than the well-being of the troops. Given the difficulties in recruiting, demobilization is impossible. Recently, Zelensky renewed the state of emergency, so the general mobilization continues, along with the concealment of casualty figures, the best-kept secret of both sides—although, unlike Russia, whose casualties are tracked in detail using obituaries in the press and on social media, no one asks Kyiv about its loss levels—and, in the Ukrainian case, forced conscription.

As Ian Proud explains, “Until recently, Ukrainian army recruiters chose easy targets. However, on October 26, the defense editor of the British newspaper The Sun, Jerome Starkey, wrote a harrowing report about a recent trip to the front lines in Ukraine, during which he claimed that his Ukrainian colleague had been ‘forcibly recruited by his country’s armed forces.’” This same week, a video allegedly showed an attempt to forcibly recruit the bodyguard of American actress Angelina Jolie during her propaganda visit to Kherson.

“Ukrainian friends told me from the beginning of the war that their husbands/sons feared forced mobilization, and the videos started circulating shortly afterward, so I was astonished to learn that many in the West believe the busification videos are fake, created using artificial intelligence or Russian propaganda,” commented feminist activist Almut Rochowanski, referring to Ian Proud’s question about why Ukrainian forced conscription is allowed to have no political consequences. The images speak for themselves: videos in which unarmed people, often women, defend men threatened with a one-way trip to the front; groups of neighbors protecting potential recruits or even overturning mobilization vehicles; and people fleeing, in any available transport or even across rooftops, from the agents pursuing them have become some of the most repeated images of the war. With a much larger population to recruit and, above all, economic incentives to make the terrible profession of war attractive, Russia has avoided these kinds of images, which radically contradict the image of unity and support for continuing the fight for as long as necessary that the Kyiv government wants to project. Ignoring reality is the best way to avoid giving explanations, an approach strictly adhered to by both the international press, focused on justifying the continuation of the war, and the Ukrainian authorities, who promised in 2024 to end the “busification” but prefer to look the other way. The current difficulties on the front, with media outlets like The New York Times warning that Russia is on the verge of its greatest success—the possible capture of Pokrovsk—since 2023, lends itself to the willful blindness of those who see the deaths of their troops as a necessary evil to achieve a greater objective.

According to Proud, one of the reasons for the lack of information is that “the defection of Ukrainians is just the tip of the iceberg. If Ukrainians find it difficult to encourage young people to voluntarily enlist in the army, it is even more difficult to get them to stay in it without deserting.” “In the first half of 2025, more than 110,000 cases of desertion were reported in Ukraine. In 2024, Ukrainian prosecutors initiated more than 89,000 proceedings related to desertion and unauthorized abandonment of units, a figure three and a half times higher than in 2023. More than 20% of the one million personnel in the Ukrainian army have deserted in the last four years, and the numbers continue to rise,” he explains. Faced with these figures, which, being official, cannot be denied, the Ukrainian government can only claim that some of these apparent deserters are later brought back to the front.

Three and a half years after the Russian invasion, and with the nationalist wave that enabled the initial mass conscription and made Zelensky an undisputed leader now a distant memory, the reality of the war is too stark to conceal. The strain has also brought political clashes to the surface, resulting in less favorable media coverage for the government—a trend that will only intensify as the situation on the front deteriorates or as an election approaches. “By entering into open conflict with Zelensky and Yermak, Ukrainska Pravda has begun publishing much more critical articles on issues that have long been silenced,” writes Ukrainian sociologist Volodymyr Ischenko this week regarding a scathing article on draft evasion. “Six million men evaded military service simply by not updating their contact information, despite the risk of receiving hefty fines or even more severe penalties. That represents the majority of the 10-11 million men eligible for military service. Most Ukrainians are unwilling to fight for the state in what is defined as ‘national’ defense,” Ischenko explains. The article adds that “in recent months, media reports have surfaced about 1.5 million people who have not updated their military registration information. When a UP journalist asked an army officer familiar with mobilization reports about this figure, he merely murmured, ‘It’s a conservative estimate.’ However, he did not reveal the actual statistics.”

“The Central Military District often mobilizes sick and frail individuals, as it is necessary to finalize ‘mobilization’ plans every month. Most of these people will never be able to carry out combat missions effectively. At the same time, we have armies of people who have deserted the army without permission and healthy ‘evasive’ individuals wandering around,” an officer quoted in the article complains.

“There is only one legal mechanism for ‘hunting down’ offenders,” lawyer Volodymyr Romanchuk told UP. “Employees of the territorial mobilization center draft a protocol on administrative infractions and impose a fine on the citizen, ranging from 17,000 to 25,500 hryvnias. This applies to evading the updating of personal data and approval by the military commission. The military then passes the information on to law enforcement officers, who can detain the conscript. Military law expert Romanchuk emphasizes: ‘If a conscript does not pay the fine and does not update their personal data, they may face additional restrictions, such as account freezes or the suspension of their driver’s license.’” The article describes the reality for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who try to evade conscription at the risk of reprisals to avoid being sent to the front. “If a recruit fails to report to the recruitment center on the day they are due to report to training, they can be sentenced to three to five years in prison. After all, it’s no longer an administrative infraction, but a criminal offense,” Ukrainska Pravda adds. The only real protection for these men trying to avoid being sent to the front is that the personnel shortage isn’t limited to the front lines, but extends to the rear. “There are many violators, but few of us,” says a recruitment officer in western Ukraine.

Evading conscription involves more than just failing to appear to update one’s information or respond to summonses; it practically means going underground. “One evening in July, Olena, a woman from Odessa, called out to her husband for dinner: ‘Igor, I’m waiting for you in the kitchen!’ For the next two weeks, they played in silence. Igor was afraid the neighbors would hear his name and call the conscription office. He has been unemployed for over three years and lives off his wife’s support. Since the Rada passed the mobilization law, he hasn’t left his apartment, not even to go outside. Thanks to this, he still manages to remain in the ‘gray’ zone for the conscription office,” writes Ukrainska Pravda. Avoiding the front lines involves not only running faster during a forced conscription incident but also avoiding being betrayed, even by neighbors. “Some of the ‘tax evaders,’ as the saying goes, want to avoid mobilization and lead a normal life. The price of this is usually measured in dollars,” the article adds. War and corruption are never far away.

According to the latest poll conducted in Ukraine at the end of August, 20% of the Ukrainian population is prepared to continue fighting until territorial integrity is restored, and 13% until the borders of February 2022 are recovered. Sixty percent advocate freezing the front and seeking a compromise with Russia. The economic, political, and military situation for Ukraine is complicated and worsening as the cold season approaches. At the same time, departures from the country are increasing—as confirmed and criticized by Poland—along with draft evasion and attempts to flee forced mobilization. Even so, Zelensky insists on the rhetoric of Ukrainian unity to continue demanding more aid from his allies to fight until final victory.

Related:

Ukraine’s ‘Busification’ — Forced Conscription — Is Tip Of The Iceberg

What is busification?

“Busification”: A Video Chronicle of Mobilization Violations in Ukraine