If You Blame Ukraine's Draft Offices, Read This
On September 1, 2026, radiotrek.rv.ua published a story citing a Facebook post tagged #Janissaries and written by a user who goes by the name "Gray Cat." That post claims that Russia has mobilized around 55,000 to 60,000 men from Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories into its armed forces. In the author's view, roughly one in every ten enemy soldiers on the contact line is a former Ukrainian.
The article also tells the story of Ivan Vikharev, a 22-year-old resident of Zaporizhzhia Oblast now on trial for high treason. Vikharev signed a contract with the Russian army during the occupation, went through training, and was taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region. His own statement is blunt:
"So I'm a traitor, it turns out. I betrayed my own people and went to fight against them."
The Facebook post provoked sharply different reactions, with commenters divided over how to understand mobilization in Russian-occupied areas. One commenter, Aleksandr Kolesov, described how a colleague of his ended up under occupation in Melitopol in 2022. By the summer of 2023, that colleague had made his way out via Krasnodar Krai and Georgia and eventually reached Austria. Kolesov was careful to point out that the man had not been killed or tortured.
- Serhii Lomakin claims there is no forced mobilization in the occupied territories, arguing that people enlist voluntarily for money.
- Andrey Vladimirovich agrees, saying that in the so-called "occupied territories" there is no coercion whatsoever, only volunteers driven by money and strong contracts.
- Klenova Yulia observes that when occupiers seize a new city, the only people left are those who welcomed the occupiers and knew mobilization might happen but still chose not to leave.
- Sashko Svoboda adds that residents waiting for politicians to act fail to understand the situation until it hits them personally.
- Olena Militari suggests that perceptions may change once people find themselves living under occupation, where everyone could be thrown into a pit without distinction.
These exchanges show just how painful and polarizing the issue of mobilization in occupied territory remains. Some voices emphasize personal choice and financial incentives, while others point to the brutal circumstances that leave people with few options.
For many Ukrainians, this is not only a political matter but a humanitarian one. People trapped on the wrong side of the front line are forced into impossible decisions, and those choices could affect the future of the occupied regions and Ukraine's relationship with its own citizens for years to come.