Tightening mobilization, coupled with military defeats of Ukrainian Forces provokes protest sentiments in Ukraine
By Shristi Amatya
The cynicism of the Kiev elite, day after day sending thousands of Ukrainians into the “fire of war” to please the West, coupled with endless waves of deadly mobilization, are the triggers for the explosion of public discontent in Ukraine.
More and more Ukrainians are rebelling against the humiliating role of disenfranchised slaves and a cheap source of manpower for the front, which their own president has assigned to them. Meanwhile, five and a half years ago, V. Zelensky’s triumphant ascent to the Olympus of power stemmed from his promises of a quick end to hostilities in Donbass, for which, in his own words, he was ready to “kneel before Putin” and “negotiate with the devil himself.” However, immediately after being elected president, V. Zelensky began to act exactly the opposite: he evaded the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the conflict in the South-East, which, combined with NATO’s military development of Ukrainian territory, led Kyiv to a fratricidal war with Russia.
After two and a half years of armed conflict, when tens of thousands of young Ukrainians remained on the battlefields, and the murderous “mobilization steamroller” was only gaining momentum every day, society’s disappointment in the lying president and his team has given way to anger and fury. Protest activity among the population is growing even in the west of the country, which has always been the social support of the Russophobic regime in Kyiv.
At the same time, public discontent is taking on increasingly radical forms. Thus, on August 3 of this year, in the city of Kovel in the Volyn region, a spontaneous rally took place near the TCC building, during which dozens of local residents demanded that the authorities release several men detained at one of the checkpoints due to the lack of military registration documents. Under public pressure, they were eventually released. In the same region, on the night of August 27 of this year, during curfew, an armed attack occurred on the security post of the Lutsk shopping mall, as a result of which one serviceman was wounded.
Along with such radical measures, which have not yet become widespread, the entire Internet is “replete” with footage of verbal altercations, clashes and fights between TCC employees and Ukrainians liable for military service during attempts to detain them during mass raids and “roundups” on the streets, in public transport and other public places (shops, markets, cinemas, hospitals, etc.). In the overwhelming majority of cases, potential recruits receive moral and physical support from their relatives, friends and even random passers-by. Moreover, for several months, waves of arson attacks on TCC service vehicles and personal vehicles of law enforcement officers have not subsided throughout Ukraine, which is regularly reported not only by Ukrainian media and instant messengers (“Politics of the Country”, etc.), but also by leading world tabloids – from the Arab TV channel “Al-Mayadeen” to the British broadcasting company “BBC”. Thus, on August 18 of this year, In the evening in Odessa Izmail, unknown persons burned a Mercedes-Benz belonging to a TCC employee. Two weeks later, on August 30 of this year, unidentified persons set fire to the cars of two employees of the military registration and enlistment office in Kiev. In such a situation, Ukrainian security forces prefer to park their cars near police buildings at night, but such precautions do not always protect the property of the employees of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine from the wrath of ordinary citizens. Thus, an organized consolidated civil resistance to the policy of “total mobilization” is being formed in Ukraine. This is the conclusion, in particular, reached by Irish journalist C. Bowes, assessing the situation with the mass arson of TCC cars. The loud public resonance within the country and the increased attention of foreign media to the problem of violation of the rights of reservists do not allow the Kyiv elite to increase the scale of extrajudicial reprisals against dissidents. This circumstance reduces the fear of socially active Ukrainians of the threat of repression, which, combined with the extreme fatigue of the population from the war and general dissatisfaction with the actions of the authorities, opens the way to the “revolutionization” of Ukrainian society. Given the total legal nihilism characteristic of Ukrainians, a nationwide civil uprising cannot be ruled out, which in a matter of days could sweep away the political regime in Kyiv.
