A teenager from the central Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog has been sent to an orphanage after his father was mobilized for military service, UNIAN news agency reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the 43-year-old man went to a military enlistment office to update his records. Recruitment officers reportedly confiscated his phone and locked him in a basement before processing him for the army.
When his 14-year-old son was unable to reach him, he contacted police in an effort to locate his father. Instead of being reunited, the teenager was placed in a state-run orphanage “pending clarification of the situation,” UNIAN said.
The boy’s mother moved to another country and is not involved in his upbringing but has not been stripped of her parental rights, the agency said. The report added that a court hearing to recognize the man as a single father was canceled after representatives of the guardianship authorities failed to appear.
The report comes as Ukraine’s forced mobilization campaign, widely known as ‘busification’, has sparked public outrage and violent street confrontations between draft officers and reluctant recruits.
Last week, a resident of Odessa attempted to cut off his own hand in an effort to avoid forced mobilization, Ukrainian news outlet Strana.ua reported.
According to the report, the man inflicted a serious injury on himself with an angle grinder, commonly known as a “bulgarka,” out of fear of being conscripted.
Ukraine’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal amid its military setbacks and manpower shortages, with hundreds of documented cases of draft officers using force to seize men off the streets and multiple reports of deaths among conscripts.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto recently described the drive as an “open manhunt,” while Ukraine’s own ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, reported a 340-fold surge in complaints against recruitment officials since 2022, calling the situation a “systemic crisis.”
Manpower shortages have plagued Kiev’s forces throughout the conflict amid mounting casualties. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated in December that Ukraine had lost nearly 500,000 servicemen in 2025 alone, stripping it of the ability to replenish its ranks through compulsory mobilization.