Europe
As Ukraine struggles to field soldiers, recruitment centers are attacked
By
Washington Post February 7, 2025
Isabelle Khurshudyan, Kostiantyn Khudov
Washington Post February 7, 2025
Freshly recruited members of the Aidar Battalion of Ukrainian ground forces train in the eastern Donbas region in February 2024. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/Washington Post)
KYIV - As Ukraine faces a desperate shortage of troops at the front line, there has been a wave of bombings against the recruitment centers meant to replenish the ranks, which law enforcement officials are calling a Russian-orchestrated campaign.
In just the past week, explosions have gone off at three draft offices across the country. In two of the blasts, those placing the bombs were also killed, while 12 others were injured, including servicemen. Ukraine’s domestic security service, the SBU, said that Russian special services are recruiting young men to carry out the attacks in exchange for money.
The bombings come as Ukraine’s mobilization effort has been flagging three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Soldiers in the field have said reinforcements are needed to fend off the invading Russians, but few Ukrainians are volunteering to fight now. Many draft-age men avoid recruitment centers and their officers altogether out of fear of being forced into service and there have been cases of centers being targeted by attacks with no obvious external links.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, which is part of the National Security and Defense Council, said the main goal of Russia’s attacks on draft offices is to “sow more division between military and civilians.”
Kovalenko said Russia’s security services monitor online chats for Ukrainians who might express pro-Russian views. Then the Russians establish contact privately to offer a financial incentive - ranging from $500 to several thousand, Kovalenko said - for someone to do their bidding.
“These people can be called mules,” Kovalenko said. “They carry explosives, bring them in, and, of course, what happens next with these people does not interest the Russians.” For its part, Moscow has also accused Ukrainian intelligence agencies of paying people to carry out acts of sabotage inside Russia.
Those recruited online to build and plant the explosives could turn into unwitting suicide bombers, SBU officials said this week. In some cases, a Russian security service agent monitoring from afar remotely detonates the explosive early - to kill the witness and also avoid paying them.
Bombing the recruitment centers isn’t the only tactic, Kovalenko said, adding that Russians also systematically spread disinformation about Ukrainian mobilization online through popular social media platforms, such as Telegram and TikTok.
The Research and Analytical Group InfoLight.UA, which tracks “malicious Russian narratives” in partnership with Ukraine’s security and defense forces, said that in 2023, “staged” videos showing physical disputes between recruiting officers and men on the street started to spread online, contributing to actual incidents later on.
Russia intensified its efforts to find saboteurs to attack recruitment centers and their personnel starting from the middle of last year, the group said.
“At the same time, a growing divide between the military and civilians worsened,” the research group said in a recent release of their findings. Some soldiers placed stickers on their cars to say they weren’t recruitment officers because vehicles were being set on fire.
The SBU and National Police said this week they had jointly identified 497 individuals who had committed arson against military vehicles or planned to bomb recruitment centers and the Ukrainian railway, which is crucial for delivering weapons to the front line.
Though Ukrainian law enforcement officials have pointed to Russia as being the main coordinator of these attacks, some incidents have occurred without Moscow’s direct involvement.
On Jan. 31, a new conscript being transported to a training center called an acquaintance to help him escape, according to law enforcement officials. When the bus stopped at a gas station, the acquaintance arrived and allegedly shot and killed a recruitment officer while he and the conscript escaped. Ukrainian prosecutors have since charged both men.
Mykhailo Drapatyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, condemned the draft officer’s killing in a social media post, describing it as “a red line that cannot be crossed.” Calling for the perpetrators to be swiftly punished, he added that “we have no right to silently observe the growing wave of contempt toward defenders of Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s ground forces said in a statement that it is strengthening security measures for recruitment centers and their staff in response to the wave of attacks. That includes additional patrolling, increased surveillance and new training for staff on how to react in certain situations or identify potential explosives.
Russia “is increasingly looking for ways to destroy us from within,” prominent military volunteer Maria Berlinska wrote in a Facebook post.
The Russian efforts are mining a growing strain of dissatisfaction in Ukrainian society as the war drags on. Ukrainian polling has revealed an upward trend of people preferring a ceasefire, even if it means Russia maintains control of occupied Ukrainian territory for at least the foreseeable future.
A survey from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in December showed that 38 percent of respondents agreed that “in order to achieve peace as soon as possible and preserve its independence, Ukraine may give up some of its territories.” The figure was below 20 percent in a poll conducted a year earlier.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has also repeatedly signaled in recent months Kyiv’s readiness to strike a deal to end the fighting.
During an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan posted to YouTube, Zelensky also revealed that about 390,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been wounded during Russia’s invasion - a figure he once closely guarded.
Asked if he would sit across Putin at the negotiating table, Zelensky said, “If that is the only setup in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely we will go for this setup.”