Latest news with #militaryrecruitment
Russia Today
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Council of Europe ‘alarmed' by reports of draft-related Ukrainian deaths and torture
In his latest update on the situation in Ukraine published this week, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Michael O'Flaherty, expressed concerns about 'systematic and widespread' abuse committed by Ukrainian draft officials. The commissioner said he'd seen 'alarming' reports that include 'allegations of torture and death during military recruitment.' The official urged Ukraine's authorities to promptly investigate all alleged instances of abuse and take measures to prevent similar violations, including independent oversight of recruitment officials' behavior, he said. O'Flaherty cited a statement by Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubinets, who also noted that human rights abuse committed by draft officials was 'systematic and widespread.' The list of these violations includes 'beatings, brutal arrests, denial of access to a lawyer, incommunicado detention, mobilization of people with disabilities and other unacceptable acts,' the report stated. In an April interview with political commentator Ben Shapiro, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky denied that abuse is 'massive,' insisting that it was limited to 'singular cases.' He asserted that the main problem was people evading mobilization through bribes, while neglecting to touch upon allegations of beatings and torture. Ukraine expanded its conscription criteria last year amid heavy battlefield losses, lowering the legal draft age from 27 to 25, while increasing the power of military recruiters. The mobilization campaign, which is overseen by Ukraine's Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR), has drawn widespread public criticism. Numerous videos circulating online show enlistment officers chasing would-be recruits in the streets, commonly backed by civilian police. Reluctant draftees are sometimes threatened with military-grade weaponry and often beaten, along with any bystanders who attempt to intervene. Earlier this week, a video surfaced online showing an elderly woman trying to prevent military recruiters from detaining her son. The woman was seen clinging to the windshield of a van and screaming. A witness filming the scene claimed the vehicle belonged to military recruiters and that her son was inside. According to the woman soon felt unwell and died in an ambulance. A February report by suggested that 80% of Ukrainians had a negative view of the TCR. Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrey Kovalenko stated this week that ordinary citizens were providing the coordinates of local TCR offices to the Russian military.
CTV News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
CTV National News: Why experts are not surprised by extremism in the military
Watch Studies in Canada suggest violent extremism is lurking in the military, using social media to actively recruit soldiers. Heather Wright explains.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian draft offices
By Dan Peleschuk KHARKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia struck two military recruitment centres in separate drone attacks on Monday, Ukraine's military said, doubling down on a new campaign of strikes Kyiv says is aimed at disrupting military recruitment. Monday's attacks damaged draft offices in the regional capitals of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia and came a day after a Russian drone struck a recruitment centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. Last week, Russian attacks targeted draft offices in Poltava, another regional capital, as well as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Both strikes on Monday took place in densely populated areas, wounding dozens of civilians and damaging homes and apartment buildings. In Kharkiv, rescue workers sifted through debris as stunned residents recovered. "This is the tactic our enemy has chosen," Mayor Ihor Terekhov told reporters in front of a badly charred building. In its daily briefing on Monday, Russia's defence ministry confirmed it had struck an unspecified number of draft offices. The string of attacks has prompted recruitment centres to disperse some personnel and temporarily suspend work at the locations damaged, ground forces spokesperson Vitaliy Sarantsev told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. However, he added that recruitment was still on track. Ukraine's resource-strapped military has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army on the battlefield, where Moscow has made gradual advances across parts of the east in a grinding summer campaign. Enthusiasm for joining up in Ukraine has also been dampened by reports of corruption as well as poor training and command. Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council warned on Monday that Russia was also waging an "information campaign" by spreading a bot on messaging platform Telegram that purports to collect information about the location of draft offices. " a coordinated attempt by Russia to destabilize the mobilization process and sow panic among the population," the Center for Countering Disinformation said in a statement. The recent strikes also follow a string of bombings at recruitment centres and arson attacks on military vehicles earlier this year, which Ukraine's domestic security service has said is Russian sabotage.
RNZ News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Russia steps up attacks on Ukrainian draft offices
By Vitalii Hnidyi and Dan Peleschuk , Reuters A woman stands among debris next to a recruitment centre building damaged after a drone attack in Kharkiv on 7 July, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: SERGEY BOBOK / AFP Russia struck two military recruitment centres in separate drone attacks overnight, Ukraine's military said, doubling down on a new campaign of strikes Kyiv says is aimed at disrupting military recruitment. The attacks damaged draft offices in the regional capitals of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia and came a day after a Russian drone struck a recruitment centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk. Last week , Russian attacks targeted draft offices in Poltava, another regional capital, as well as President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Both strikes overnight took place in densely populated areas, wounding dozens of civilians and damaging homes and apartment buildings. In Kharkiv, rescue workers sifted through debris as stunned residents recovered. "This is the tactic our enemy has chosen," Mayor Ihor Terekhov told reporters in front of a badly charred building. In its daily briefing on Monday (local time), Russia's defence ministry confirmed it had struck an unspecified number of draft offices. The string of attacks has prompted recruitment centres to disperse some personnel and temporarily suspend work at the locations damaged, ground forces spokesperson Vitaliy Sarantsev told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne. However, he added that recruitment was still on track. Ukraine's resource-strapped military has struggled to fend off a bigger and better-equipped Russian army on the battlefield, where Moscow has made gradual advances across parts of the east in a grinding summer campaign. Enthusiasm for joining up in Ukraine has also been dampened by reports of corruption as well as poor training and command. Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council warned that Russia was also waging an "information campaign" by spreading a bot on messaging platform Telegram that purports to collect information about the location of draft offices. "This ... indicates a coordinated attempt by Russia to destabilise the mobilization process and sow panic among the population," the Center for Countering Disinformation said in a statement. The recent strikes also follow a string of bombings at recruitment centres and arson attacks on military vehicles earlier this year, which Ukraine's domestic security service has said is Russian sabotage. - Reuters
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trump reveals his secret pet name for Melania: ‘Isn't it terrible?'
A jubilant President Donald Trump inadvertently revealed his pet name for his wife Melania Trump during a speech to supporters in Iowa on Thursday, hours after Congress finally passed his 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' Delivering a 'Salute to America' address in Des Moines on the eve of July 4, as the United States marks the 249th anniversary of its independence from Britain, Trump leapt from one topic to another and eventually settled on military recruitment. 'I remember saying to our great First Lady...' he began, before stopping to remark: 'I call her 'First Lady,' isn't it terrible?' He continued: 'I'm saying 'Good night, First Lady, my darling,' because it reminds me that I'm president, that's why. I said 'First Lady, it's terrible nobody wants to join our military force…' The president recently held a lavish military parade in Washington, D.C., on June 14, which also happened to be his own 79th birthday, but did not serve in the armed forces himself and has been quoted in the past making derisory remarks about U.S. troops. The first lady has rarely been seen since her husband returned to the White House in January, although she did attend the parade and the eventful reopening of the revamped Kennedy Center last month and, on Thursday, met patients at the Children's National Hospital in Washington. According to The Daily Beast, she told the children: 'It's a very special day. So we will have a big party at the White House… When you feel better, maybe next year, you come over and we'll celebrate together.' She also reportedly bonded with them over a shared appreciation of Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, breaking with the president on Swift, who said he 'hated' the pop superstar last year after she refused to endorse his candidacy. Speculation about the state of the Trumps' marriage is never far from the headlines and biographer Michael Wolff claimed in May that the couple are effectively 'separated.' 'They clearly do not in any way inhabit a marriage as we define marriage,' Wolff claimed. 'And I think maybe we can more specifically say they live separate lives.' Elsewhere in the president's Iowa speech, he declared that, in addition to Swift, he hates Democrats for opposing his gargantuan tax and spending bill, mocked Iran, suggested farmers could be exempted from his raids on undocmented migrant workers, resumed his attack on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and caused offense by using an antisemitic slur.
