Authorities in Ukraine have raised fresh concerns that Russia has now started to focus its attacks directly on the country’s recruitment structures, aiming to weaken Ukraine’s ability to gather enough troops to resist Russian forces on the front lines.
There has been an increase in strikes across cities in Ukraine, with missile and drone attacks reaching new highs. In June alone, more than 5,000 were recorded. During the first few days of July, recruitment facilities were hit five separate times, resulting in three deaths and eighty-eight injuries, most of them civilians.
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Col. Vitalii Sarantsev, who serves as spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ground Forces Command, listed recent incidents. “Last week it was Kryvyi Rih, twice in Poltava, then Kremenchuk. This week, we saw Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv under attack. It’s beginning to show a pattern,” he said.
“They aim to interrupt our recruitment efforts and create fear. They want to paint these places as unsafe for anyone thinking of joining the military.”
These centers are not just about gathering new soldiers. They also handle the documentation of men who are of military age, run public campaigns for service, and assess candidates for fitness, both mentally and physically. Their work also includes matching people to units and deploying them for training.
Just this past Wednesday night, Ukraine experienced another heavy round of missile and drone strikes, including 728 drones alone. This happened even though former President Donald Trump recently voiced strong disapproval of President Vladimir Putin. Speaking on Tuesday, Trump said, “He’s killing too many people.”
Recruitment Centers Now a Direct Target in the War
Russian lawmakers and government-linked media have openly supported the idea of striking Ukrainian military enlistment offices. They claim that ordinary people in Ukraine are in favor of these attacks, especially those who oppose being drafted.
Ukraine has a much smaller population compared to Russia and has had to keep reinforcing its front lines without pause. After more than three years of war, recruitment efforts have become harder, with more people trying to avoid being drafted.
Under current rules, every man of military age must register and be ready to serve, but some military units still use public campaigns to encourage voluntary enlistment.
The head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, pointed out that while attacks on recruitment centers are new, this tactic is part of a longer trend. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has used different methods to harm Ukraine’s ability to gather soldiers.
While some of the newer centers already include bomb shelters or are located underground, many of the older ones are just normal government offices in busy neighborhoods.
Sarantsev made it clear that these older offices are not able to function during air raid alerts. “We will need to come up with different ways of working. This change is not going to be quick. It will take time to adapt to the current threats and demands for safety,” he said.
