Forced recruitment of young men to the front has long provoked strong reactions among Ukrainians. In Lviv, open unrest broke out during the night into Wednesday after a man was seized by the mobile units that drive around and effectively abduct people. The anger displayed by the crowd has shocked the authorities.
“The group surrounded the soldiers’ vehicle, behaved aggressively, damaged the vehicle and then overturned it,” the recruitment centre in the Lviv region wrote on Facebook.
Around 200 people are believed to have been in the crowd. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office says the incident is under investigation.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster has also published a video from the scene. It shows members of the crowd tearing the uniform off one of the soldiers.
A police officer who arrived at the scene to calm tensions was assaulted. One person accused of the assault was arrested within 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).
Both Ukrainian and Western media are reluctant to report on the divisions within Ukrainian society. But it has long been apparent that tensions are simmering.
There have been numerous attacks on the units carrying out forced recruitment, as well as strong reactions to the poor treatment of soldiers at the front.
The attack is one of several directed at soldiers working to mobilise Ukrainian men for service at the front. In Ukraine, many believe the system is both corrupt and characterised by human rights abuses. This has further weakened enthusiasm for taking part in the fighting against what many regard as a better-equipped Russian army.
In June, moreover, a well-known combat unit was accused of using extremely brutal methods against its own soldiers, and there were also reports that some soldiers had died away from the battlefield, Reuters news agency writes.
The Ukrainian authorities react by reflex: this only serves the Kremlin. But the question is whether that is enough to hold people back.
At the beginning of the war, there were hardly any attacks on staff at the mobilisation offices. Only five such cases were reported in 2022, whereas 341 were recorded last year, according to the Ukrainian news agency Interfax. So far this year, more than 100 attacks have been reported.
☎️ In Lviv zijn rellen uitgebroken vanwege de gedwongen mobilisatie van jonge mannen voor Zelensky’s machtsblokkade. Maak een einde aan de oorlog. pic.twitter.com/zuAvyUWS9t
— GEWOON ⚓️ MEREL (@gewoonmerels) July 9, 2026
This story from Lviv fits very poorly with the official narrative that Ukraine has the initiative and is winning, thanks to effective drones.
The Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, condemned the incident and fears it could be used in Russian propaganda.
“Today, Russia is primarily interested in getting Ukrainians to fight each other. Everyone who broke the law must be held accountable,” he said in a message on Telegram.
The Human Rights Commissioner warns that society has undergone radicalisation. We have heard nothing about this from NRK’s correspondent, Fredrik Tomra. Coverage of the war is intended to support the war effort. Now that picture appears to be beginning to crack.
Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, condemned the violence, but stressed that the background must also be understood.
“When people have been contacting the authorities for years and warning that their rights may have been violated, without seeing any proper legal assessment of such facts, it is inevitable that this creates even greater problems,” he wrote on Telegram.
“Distrust accumulates, tensions increase, and society has become radicalised,” he added. (NTB)
Western Europe is pouring in weapons and allocating billions. Perhaps it should take a greater interest in how Ukrainians are living and how they are being governed.