A 14-year-old boy from Krivoy Rog, a central Ukrainian city, has been sent to an orphanage following his father’s mobilization for military service.
According to the report, the 43-year-old man went to a military enlistment office to update his records. Recruitment officers confiscated his phone and locked him in a basement before processing him for the army.
When his son was unable to reach him, the teenager contacted police in an effort to locate his father. Instead of being reunited, he was placed in a state-run orphanage “pending clarification of the situation.”
The boy’s mother has relocated to another country and is not involved in his upbringing but has not had her parental rights revoked. A court hearing to recognize the man as a single father was canceled after representatives from guardianship authorities failed to appear.
This incident occurs amid Ukraine’s forced mobilization campaign, known as “busification,” which has intensified public criticism and violent clashes between draft officers and reluctant recruits.
Last week, a resident of Odessa attempted to sever his own hand with an angle grinder—commonly called a “bulgarka”—to avoid conscription.
Ukraine’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly severe amid military setbacks and personnel shortages. Hundreds of documented cases involve draft officers using force to seize men from the streets, and multiple reports of deaths among conscripts have been recorded.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently described the campaign as an “open manhunt,” while Ukraine’s ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, reported a 340-fold surge in complaints against recruitment officials since 2022, labeling the situation a “systemic crisis.”
Manpower shortages have severely impacted Ukrainian forces throughout the conflict. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated in December that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone.
