Ukraine drafts elderly and disabled men as healthy recruits run out
Ukraine's ombudsman found only elderly, disabled and mentally ill men at a recruitment centre. Ukrainian mobilization has hit rock bottom as the pool of able-bodied men runs dry.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Ukraine drafts elderly and disabled men as healthy recruits run out
A visit by Ukraine's ombudsman to a military recruitment centre has produced images that sum up the state of the country's mobilization: a man over 80, another over 50 carrying a bag full of medication, a third with crippled fingers, and the youngest — who did not even know where he was — probably suffering from mental problems. The account, which has been circulating for days, describes a country where the quota of volunteers and conscripts has been exhausted to the point of combing through the last pockets of the male population.
The scene is not an isolated one. According to the same account, the streets are still full of healthy women, while able-bodied men have vanished — some at the front, others in hiding or having fled. Recruitment has become selective in the worst sense: only those who cannot escape are left. Those who do not run, as one analysis points out, are the only ones who do not desert on the way to the training camp. Nobody misses the irony that being mentally ill is now a prerequisite for wanting to go to war.
The social response is also revealing. While in Spain — so it is said — feminists would denounce their husbands for failing to report, in Ukraine videos are starting to appear of women defending their husbands from the "press gangs" — the recruitment officers who have replaced the police. Some confront them, others stand their ground for them. Some interpret the ultimate aim of this war as eliminating the problem of pensions and medical costs, rebuilding the country from scratch. A thesis that is hard to prove, but which fits with the coldness of the numbers: the elderly and disabled who no longer matter.
In any case, the debate is open. What nobody disputes is that Ukraine's recruitment centres are emptying out nursing homes and psychiatric wards. And that, at this rate, the next draft will have to be found in the cemeteries.
Related discussions in the forum
A visit by Ukraine's ombudsman to a military recruitment centre has produced images that sum up the state of the country's mobilization: a man over 80, another over 50 carrying a bag full of medication, a third with crippled fingers, and the youngest — who did not even know where he was — probably suffering from mental problems. The account, which has been circulating for days, describes a country where the quota of volunteers and conscripts has been exhausted to the point of combing through the last pockets of the male population.
The scene is not an isolated one. According to the same account, the streets are still full of healthy women, while able-bodied men have vanished — some at the front, others in hiding or having fled. Recruitment has become selective in the worst sense: only those who cannot escape are left. Those who do not run, as one analysis points out, are the only ones who do not desert on the way to the training camp. Nobody misses the irony that being mentally ill is now a prerequisite for wanting to go to war.
The social response is also revealing. While in Spain — so it is said — feminists would denounce their husbands for failing to report, in Ukraine videos are starting to appear of women defending their husbands from the "press gangs" — the recruitment officers who have replaced the police. Some confront them, others stand their ground for them. Some interpret the ultimate aim of this war as eliminating the problem of pensions and medical costs, rebuilding the country from scratch. A thesis that is hard to prove, but which fits with the coldness of the numbers: the elderly and disabled who no longer matter.
In any case, the debate is open. What nobody disputes is that Ukraine's recruitment centres are emptying out nursing homes and psychiatric wards. And that, at this rate, the next draft will have to be found in the cemeteries.
Related discussions in the forum
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (11 replies).
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