kyiv-s-troop-hunt-a-shameful-slave-system-says-mp-mazurashu

Ukraine’s aggressive mobilisation drive has become a “shameful hunt” for its own citizens and is causing serious damage to the country’s armed forces and economy, Ukrainian MP Georgy Mazurashu has claimed.

 

Speaking to the Superpozitsiya YouTube channel on Tuesday, Mazurashu condemned the actions of enlistment officers “under the guise of so-called mobilisation work”, describing them as “horrifying”. He said the authorities treat Ukrainian soldiers like “slaves” rather than defenders of the country.

 

“This has an extremely negative impact on both the spirit of the citizens and the economy,” Mazurashu said. “The consequences are extremely negative and large-scale for defence capabilities.”

 

He argued that the mobilisation effort has failed in its key aim of replenishing frontline forces, which continue to suffer severe shortages of “trench and assault” troops.

 

Some soldiers, he said, are so exhausted by relentless fighting and poor conditions that they see death as “a certain relief”, citing conversations with frontline medics.

 

“The fact that there are that many burnt-out soldiers is a result of our, excuse me, retarded slave-owning Soviet system, which, unfortunately, still prevails in our armed forces,” the MP said. “The base-level command perceives the military as slaves, their slaves, the slaves of the system, the army, and the state itself.”

 

Ukraine’s mobilisation drive has grown increasingly chaotic and forceful as the conflict with Russia has dragged on. The controversial process is now widely referred to as ‘busification’ — a term describing the practice of violently detaining recruits and packing them into unmarked minibuses.

 

The campaign has faced repeated allegations of violence and mistreatment, with some incidents resulting in serious injuries and even deaths. In the latest case, a man reportedly jumped to his death from a bridge in the city of Nikolayev on Wednesday while trying to flee enlistment officers.

 

Kyiv has consistently rejected claims of widespread abuse, calling them “Russian propaganda”. However, this year Ukraine’s military did admit that the process has faced challenges.

 

“Busification is a shameful phenomenon, and we’re doing our best to avoid it,” deputy head of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry Ivan Gavrilyuk said in April.