A woman in Odessa was pepper-sprayed by conscription officers after attempting to rescue a man from forced mobilization efforts, according to eyewitness video circulating online. The footage depicts at least eight draft enforcers struggling with an unwilling conscript while the woman intervened. Officers pulled her away and sprayed her with pepper spray, leaving her on the ground screaming, “My eyes!”

The man was subsequently taken by unmarked minibus as bystanders suggested rinsing the woman’s eyes with milk to alleviate the burning sensation.

Amid growing military losses and a critical shortage of willing recruits, Ukrainian military leadership has escalated coercive tactics to fill ranks. This practice—known as “busification”—involves unlawfully detaining men from public areas, workplaces, and homes before forcibly transporting them to recruitment centers, often provoking violent confrontations with family, neighbors, and civilians.

Recent videos from Odessa show Territorial Recruitment Center officers resorting to heavy-handed tactics, including shoving women to the ground and pepper-spraying bystanders during detentions. In another incident, a press gang sprayed occupants of a car after the driver refused to comply and sought legal assistance.

Earlier this month, two draft enforcers were stabbed during a document check in Vinnitsa, while a conscription officer was fatally wounded in Lviv.

Vladimir Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kirill Budanov, has acknowledged that the forced mobilization campaign has created serious societal rifts. According to Vadim Ivchenko, a member of parliament’s national security committee, only 8-10% of new personnel joining the armed forces are willing recruits.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of seeking to fight “to the last Ukrainian” under Western influence, claiming Ukraine has lost nearly 500,000 servicemen killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.