Draft Dodgers, Corrupt Officials... This Is Not Me

“Which of the above do you consider to be the greatest crime during war and martial law?” This was one of the questions in the ZN.UA questionnaire for a study conducted with the help of the sociological service of the Razumkov Center.

As a result (see Fig. 1), corruption “won” in this so-called competition by a landslide. It is considered the greatest crime by 69.3% of Ukrainians. 2.3% of Ukrainians “voted” for avoiding the mobilization of those who are subject to it. 24.2% of respondents recognized these phenomena as crimes of equal gravity...

In fact, war is not only about heroism and patriotism. Not only about those stories that will later form the basis of a new heroic epic. This is primarily about the resource. It is impossible to win a war on the sheer stubbornness of three hundred Spartans alone. To be honest, you can’t stay on this sheer stubbornness and defensiveness for long.

I don’t think I’ll be revealing some terrible military secret if I say that any resource tends to run out. And I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone if I say that people are also a resource – on a par with tanks, helicopters, ammunition, and mines. A virtually irreplaceable resource. Western partners can provide us with huge amounts of ammunition, but this will not save us if there is physically no one to use them. People are the only resource that no one will give us from the outside.

Theft of funds is a reduction of a resource that could otherwise be used.

Avoiding mobilization is a reduction in the resource that could be used.

Why then is there such a colossal difference in the response numbers? You will laugh. But I think I understand where it comes from.

We are prone to believe that “corruption” is somewhere out there, far away. These are the officials, this is the government, these are the mythical “they” who have ruined our entire lives. And this is definitely not us, trying to “solve things” at every step – from the maternity hospital to the military registration and enlistment office.

However, evading mobilization is exactly us. Here there is no way to say that it does not concern us, that we have nothing to do with it. But we have excuses, right? We cannot be to blame for what is happening. So, this is not a crime. This is a life position. We are not born for war. Let the deputies go to war first. I’m not going to die for Zelenskyy. I have my own front. Who will feed my family? And so on, and so forth.

Moreover, the legislation provides quite a sufficient number of legal ways to avoid being called up. And judging by the same survey (the question was: “In your opinion, should representatives of each of these groups be subject to conscription into the Ukrainian Defense Forces during martial law?”), society willingly supports them (see Fig. 2). All categories that are not currently subject to mobilization are “approved” by respondents of both sexes as follows: persons with disabilities – 92.3% (91.6% of men, 92.8% of women chose this option); students receiving their first higher education – 87.5% (86% and 88.8%, respectively); custodians of persons with disabilities – 86.8% (85.7% and 87.9%); women, without their consent – 85.9% (85.2% and 86.5%); persons over 60 years old – 84.7% (84.5% and 85%); persons with three or more minor children – 82.9% (82.9% each); custodians of elderly people – 78.4% (77.9% and 78.8%); students receiving a second higher education – 53.3% (52.2% and 54.1%).

Legitimization of almost all of these categories is higher in the west and center of Ukraine. Except for two. The idea that persons who are custodians of elderly people should not be subject to mobilization is mostly supported in the south of Ukraine – 82.1% (the west shows 80.1% of support, the center – 78.5%, the east of the country – 73, 8%). The east of the country is the least loyal to women – 77.7% (in the west they are “supported” by 87%, in the south – by 88.4%, in the center – by 88.2%).

In general, all this setup would look more or less logical if it did not provide such a wide field for fraud. In the list of legal ways to bypass mobilization, it is impossible to manipulate only age and gender. However, knowing the resourcefulness of our fellow citizens, I would not be surprised if there are options here too. Everything else is just a celebration for ready-witted draft dodgers. Hundreds of fake disability certificates are issued. Men who previously shouted that “who on Earth needs a woman with a kid”, completely unexpectedly begin to be interested in single mothers with many children. A sudden thirst for knowledge manifests itself at any age. The idea that all ages are submissive to love is reinforced by marriages between twenty-year-old boys and seventy-year-old women who require custody from their young husbands.

All the described, of course, is not corruption. And certainly not attempts to evade military duty. This is just how life happened. Sudden love, sudden illness of parents, sudden thirst for knowledge. What should we punish for this, or what?

Do you know what it looks like on the other side of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support? Let me tell you.

...Our battalion was supposed to be withdrawn from the combat zone in July. Instead, we were withdrawn in September. After Soledar we “rested” in Bakhmut. And then again near Soledar. Every day we were promised that literally the next day we would be taken out. Well, maybe in two days. The most requested medications at the end of the rotation were Ondansetron pills, which were stuffed into our pockets before our leaving for positions. No one was counting shell shocks anymore. It would explode, you would vomit (sorry for the reality of life), then take some pills and continue shooting. Then you would be changed on your position, spend three days put on a drip – and be sent back to get the next shell shock.

At a certain stage, there were so few of those who did not return home on the shield or were not lying around in hospitals that the guys from the logistics platoon participated in the next assault. These are those who shot only at the firing range throughout the war. Were they scared? They were. They were scared as hell, but they went there. And not everyone returned.

Meanwhile the leadership continued to promise us that just a little more, just a little bit more literally, and we will replace you.

But there was no one to replace us with. It was impossible to put real newcomers, just from the training ground, into these positions as they would have ended before they had really started to achieve anything. And those battalions that had a conditional rest and could have replaced us were staffed approximately the same poor way as we were.

And it no longer mattered how many vehicles, shells, grenades, etc. we had. Moreover, when my brother-in-law returned from the hospital in his car, the commander swore without choosing any expression. By this point, there were more cars in the platoon than those who could get behind the wheel.

The phrase “We’ll have a rotation soon” no longer brought enthusiasm. Whoever said this out loud was just about to be punched in the face. Because no one believed it anymore. The only opportunity to “rest” was through injuries. And even that was not for sure. Nobody dared to start talking about vacations; the absence of even one person was already critical.

The situation, by the way, is not at all unique. I know units where the word “rotation” itself does not sound at all. Same as “vacation”.

By the way, if everyone here – from the granny on the bench to the minibus driver – knows how to fight corruption, then perhaps no one knows what to do with draft dodgers. However, everyone knows a million options on how to avoid this very mobilization. Because the shock of the first months after the start of a full-scale war has long passed. The war is again somewhere out there, far away, and not outside the window of your own home. Let it stay there. There are some titan people there, I believe in them. They know how to fight, so let them fight. And I will be proud of them and, if possible, throw money at them.

No, I don’t propose to grab everyone indiscriminately on the streets, stuff them into cars with hysterics and take them to the training ground “without the right of correspondence.” Moreover, I believe that it is necessary to open the borders and give everyone the opportunity to decide. If you want to stay here, accept it as a fact that sooner or later you will have to fight. If you want to find a quieter place on the globe, it’s your right, have a good trip. Stop using the army as a punitive tool for the guilty. Issue call-up papers in a planned manner, and not according to the principle “it’s easier to mobilize guys in a village than in Kyiv.” Finally pass the maturity test.

No one will do this for us. And blaming solely corruption, a clumsy government, corrupt military commissars and other “they” will never work. Everyone will have to take responsibility. Well, there is another option – to surrender to the mercy of the winner. However, Bucha clearly showed what kind of “mercy” we should expect.

Read this article in Ukrainian and russian.