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After more than two years of war, Ukrainian soldiers are tired and succession is difficult. The tightening of a law in April complicates the lives of those who refuse to go to the front.
Fear and shame. Sergei, 30, has been accustomed to both feelings since the start of the war and his refusal to join the army. He does not meet any of the criteria that could prevent him from being conscripted: he is not sick, has no disability, is not pursuing studies and has no dependent family. But he does not want to become a soldier, despite the law which obliges him to do so and the conflict which lasts and exhausts the ranks of an aging army. “Of course I’m afraid, he said in the garden of his building in a residential area of Kharkiv. I have never used weapons. It’s not in three months of training, if they ever gave it to me, that I could become a fighter. If I go into a trench, I’m dead in ten minutes, or worse, I come back mutilated, injured for life.”
He feels shame too. “Yes, I understand those who might say to me: “Why aren’t you doing anything when your country is at war? Why should others die in your place?” I know it’s unfair. But both shame and fear are emotions. When I coldly analyze the situation, I tell myself that I am right, that I am not capable of fighting, that I would be useless on the front.”
The young man has another argument: the recurring cases of corruption of officers in the enlistment centers. On May 27, a government investigation office announced that an officer who headed that of Prymorskyi, a district of Odessa (south of the country), had
