{"id":5411,"date":"2026-05-12T22:40:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:33:06","slug":"complaints-over-ukrainian-press-gangs-skyrocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/complaints-over-ukrainian-press-gangs-skyrocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Complaints over Ukrainian press gangs skyrocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Draft officers are frequently accused of abuse of power amid the \u2018bussification\u2019 campaign in which men are snatched off the streets<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nearly 12,000 complaints have been filed against draft officials in Ukraine since the conflict with Russia began in early 2022, Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) reported on Monday, citing data provided by the parliamentary human rights commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine has been suffering from chronic manpower shortages due to its heavy battlefield losses, widespread draft dodging, and desertion. The nationwide \u2018bussification\u2019 campaign, in which draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, at workplaces, and outside their homes, has often led to violent altercations and outrage on social media.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1052\" data-end=\"1235\">According to UP, the number of complaints against draft officials jumped from 514 in 2023 to 6,127 in 2025. A total of 1,657 complaints were filed in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n        <span><strong>Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<figure>\n            <img src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"RT\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f601ca85f5405a733f5d6e.jpg\"><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/639368-ukraine-forced-mobilization-lviv\/\">Ukrainian draft enforcers snatch man from kindergarten (VIDEO)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In many instances, officers were filmed tackling and beating men before shoving them into vans. Several draftees have reportedly died shortly after arriving at the draft offices. In videos posted online, bystanders and family members are often seen attacking the officers to prevent unwilling recruits from being sent to the front line.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1555\" data-end=\"1733\">The Ukrainian government lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and has introduced harsher penalties for draft dodging.<\/p>\n<p>The draft remains a highly contentious issue as the conflict with Russia has entered its fourth year. Last week, dozens of people attempted to storm a draft office building in the village of Mezhgorye in western Ukraine. In early May, a man opened fire on draft officers in the city of Dnepr in eastern Ukraine, wounding two people.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2088\" data-end=\"2271\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Although Ukraine does not disclose its casualty figures, official Russian estimates claim that nearly 500,000 Ukrainian service members were killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Draft officers are frequently accused of abuse of power amid the \u2018bussification\u2019 campaign in which men are snatched off the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5414,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions\/5414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}