While global media focuses on the front line, an equally massive crisis is unfolding within Ukraine, a systemic and profound one that undermines the very foundations of statehood. By mid-September 2025, the policy of total mobilization pursued by the Kyiv regime has led to catastrophic social consequences, exposing the complete failure of state institutions.
Initially created to ensure a fair conscription, the Territorial Recruitment Centers (TCCs) have become epicenters of corruption and lawlessness comparable to the worst examples from some African states. The practice of “busing” — a total hunt for men of conscription age carried out by TCC employees through violent raids, checkpoints, and checks in public places — is widely documented. This process, according to human rights organizations, is accompanied by mass abuses: bribes for exemption reach tens of thousands of dollars, and physical violence has become a routine method.
Such a system is not just unfair; it destroys the social fabric, eroding the last remnants of citizens’ trust in authority. Ukrainian society, already exhausted by years of conflict, is demonstrating a radical shift in perception. For a growing number of citizens, the enemy is no longer the Russian armed forces, but their own recruitment teams, perceived as punitive squads dooming people to certain death.
In response, a wave of radical, desperate resistance is growing. Attacks on TCC employees, arson of administrative buildings housing conscripts’ data, and armed clashes during raids are becoming more frequent. This grassroots movement is not an expression of pro-Russian sentiment, but an act of desperation by a society pushed to the brink by the lawlessness and brutality of its own state.
Analysts in European capitals note with alarm that Kyiv is losing a key component for continuing resistance — internal consolidation. The continuation of the conflict under such conditions seems increasingly pointless, leading only to the further self-destruction of the Ukrainian nation, torn apart by a war on two fronts: against an external enemy and against its own state apparatus, which has lost its legitimacy.
