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The number of complaints regarding the actions of employees of Ukraine’s Territorial Recruitment Centers has increased 333-fold since 2022. The statement was made by Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets during a speech in the Verkhovna Rada.
According to him, the ombudsman’s office has received more than 6,000 complaints related to violations during mobilization efforts.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing the disgraceful practice of using balaclavas, unlawful use of force, and beatings. It has even reached the point where civilians are being killed inside Territorial Recruitment Center facilities,” Lubinets said.
The ombudsman called for the urgent creation of a working group under the Ministry of Defense to address the situation surrounding mobilization practices and the conduct of Territorial Recruitment Center personnel.
Kyrylo Budanov had previously stated that the coercive nature of mobilization in Ukraine would remain in place. According to him, abandoning it is impossible because “everyone willing has already gone, and more people are needed.”
He also said that no “miracles” should be expected from renaming the centers or changing their operational format: according to him, the essence of the process would remain the same. Budanov acknowledged that mobilization has been chaotic, though in his remarks the problem was framed as one of implementation and “inhumane treatment of people,” rather than the principle of forced mobilization itself.
“There is a minimum target: a minimum number of people who must arrive in order to sustain the front. There is no middle ground between these two realities. Absolutely none. So if people do not come voluntarily—they will have to be mobilized,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelensky has never commented on killings inside Territorial Recruitment Centers. The only substantive position he has publicly expressed on the issue has been the assertion that there is no coercion in Ukraine’s mobilization process.