Ukrainian recruit shoots four military commissars in Odesa

Ukrainian recruit shoots four military commissars in Odesa

The latest chapter in resistance to mobilization in Ukraine comes from Odesa. A Ukrainian citizen, summoned to report for service, responded with gunfire when four military commissars entered his home to enforce a conscription order. According to initial reports circulating on Telegram channels, the enlistment office officers were wounded by gunfire, and reinforcements deployed to the scene were attempting to storm the shooter's apartment.

Two readings of the same shot

The incident has peine the divide between those who see conscription as a death sentence and those who believe violence against officials is unacceptable. A majority current on social media applauds the shooter, urges him to aim well, and laments there aren't more cases like this one. It's the same logic that holds that, faced with an executioner, the way out is to take him down. Against this, others point out that forced mobilization does not make a recruit an easy target, and that turning an individual case into a symbol only plays into Moscow's propaganda.

The echo of Ceuta and the million dead

The episode has drawn comparisons with the Ceuta migration crisis, although the terms of the analogy don't hold up: in the Spanish autonomous city there were no deaths to mourn, while in Ukraine casualty figures impossible to verify are still being cited, such as the one million dead soldiers. These are numbers that fuel the refusal to be cannon fodder.

An unresolved ending

At the time of writing, the assault on the home was ongoing and the shooter's fate was unknown. What the incident makes clear is that the war of attrition is no longer being fought only at the front: it is also being fought on the streets of Odesa, and some would rather die from a bullet than in the trenches of the Donbas.