"Good afternoon, TZK - your papers, please."
Oleksandr Krajchuk and his colleagues say this sentence countless times a day. They patrol the streets Kharkov and approach men in the age of military service, he writes Deutsche says (DW).
The young man who was stopped is 22 years old. The student is also too young to be drafted into the army. Krajchuk and his colleagues wish him a pleasant day.
They do one of the most unpopular jobs in Ukraine. They are employed by the Recruiting Service of this country (TZK). Krajchuk shrugs his shoulders: "Of course everyone is afraid." But someone has to do it. If not us, who will?"
Understanding for men who don't want to fight
Krajchuk (27) is a veteran himself. He was seriously injured in the war - as were his colleagues. They are not capable of fighting.
Colleague Maksim Burshchinsky, a former policeman, tries to show understanding for many Ukrainians who do not want to fight: "They are probably afraid that they will be sent to war immediately if they get the call." Half of the invitees first ask: 'Will there be training, to learn at least the minimum necessary to survive in combat?', which is completely understandable."
The reason for the fear of recruitment is numerous videos circulating on the Internet. They show men in uniform brutally arresting civilians on the street and dragging them into cars. Or women trying to protect their sons or husbands from being drafted.
One video shows an elderly woman with a colorful scarf on her head. He desperately hits the car of a TZK worker with a stick. There is a lot of anger towards the Recruiting Service.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision to employ injured veterans in the Recruiting Service does not help either. "I can kind of understand people, nobody wants to die," says Krychuk.
"But that's not the point." They will not die. Everyone who will be sent to the training camps will be prepared, they will receive training to be able to protect themselves."
Men warn each other
Krajchuk's words do not reach the people on the streets of Kharkiv. Just a few minutes after he and his colleagues show up, the streets suddenly become noticeably empty.
In Telegram groups, men warn each other about TZK patrols. Now almost only women push strollers through the parks. Pensioners are sitting on the benches.
And many of them are angry, like Yevgeny, who was just stopped and controlled. "First, it is clearly visible that I am 64 years old." And secondly, they have no explanation as to why they are patrolling here and creating tension." There is already enough unrest among the population, he says.
Volunteers fight bureaucracy
And Svitlana has a similar view of forced recruitment on the street. "I look at it negatively, because there are people who volunteer. But then they go from dislike to dislike. They send them from one commission to another."
It was the same with her brother. He volunteered - for three months he struggled with the bureaucracy, he was sent from office to office before arriving at the training, says Svitlana.
According to the data of the Ministry of Defense, since the new Law on Mobilization came into force, about two million Ukrainians have updated their information in the competent services.
However, military recruitment is still subject to criticism - there are many who say that the system is ineffective and non-transparent.
