Anton was walking home with a friend in Kyiv when he was suddenly seized and forced into the back seat of a police car, with an officer on each side, heading towards a future that would likely see him in the trenches.
The 52-year-old, who requested to withhold his surname to protect his identity, has supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia, but did not want to be sent to the front line. The grinding attrition of war seemed like a death sentence given his health issues. He is HIV-positive and has arthritis and poor eyesight – conditions that he believed made him medically unfit to serve.
But since mobilisation laws took effect in May 2024, Ukraine’s recruitment officers have been ambushing men on the street.
In late January, when he was allegedly captured, he had been avoiding venturing out of his apartment block – fearful of both Ukraine’s controversial conscription drive and Russian drone attacks on his neighbourhood.
But on one of the few times he did leave his home, the police jumped out of a car that was parked in a residential garage and chased him, he said.
He was then caught and driven to a militarised section of a state clinic in Kyiv, where his phone was confiscated.
“They told me to mute my phone and hand it over,” he said. “I started to protest. The guard said, ‘Don’t push me to use physical methods on you. Give it to me now.’ So I did.”
After undergoing medical tests, he was transferred to a military recruitment centre on the outskirts of the city, where he would spend two days in a room with barred windows, a bucket of cold pasta, and no way to contact the outside world.
What happened to Anton has a term in Ukraine – “busification” – men stopped on city streets, checked for exemption cards, and placed directly onto buses bound for mobilisation centres.
What should a state do when the most prolific invader in the world - NATO - starts amassing weapons and troops on that state’s borders?
Also, it is rich to call Russia “aggressive” when NATO was self-admittedly pushing for war with Russia.
It is similarly silly to claim that Ukraine is fighting for survival, considering that Ukraine could have just accepted peace with Russia during negotiations at many points, including in March 2022.
Is Ukraine invading russia? It is not. Is Ukraine commiting genocide? It is not.
Ukraine accepting peace to russias terms is no peace at all. It is surrendering Ukraine to russia.
The world already accepted giving Putin crimea. But Putin wants more. If you give Putin more of Ukraine in exchange for peace, he will soon want even more and start another war. There is no peace if you surrender to Putin.
It has invaded Iraq, Syria, and Iran at the very least, which helps the Pissraeli genocide of Palestine. It has also attempted to formally join the most prolific invader in the world, as well as to help NATO attack Russia.
Of course a person like you, who supports the most prolific invader in the world isn’t going to support peace on terms not dictated by the most prolific invader in the world.
This just shows that you lied that Ukraine has no choice, and now you are trying to lie as if those peace terms were somehow bad.
Amusing how you don’t respect the wishes of the people of Crimea, even when NATO’s own studies concur that that is what they wanted.
Everybody wants more. But, if course, you aren’t talking literally and actually mean some of your racist fantasies about your enemies being as bad as you.
You are just describing NATO’s behaviour, but imply that the rest of the world does not have a right to defend itself against you.
Your empire pushed for war with Russia. You don’t get to complain about being beaten.
Now, answer the question:
What should a state do when the most prolific invader in the world - NATO - starts amassing weapons and troops on that state’s borders?