Media reports mother passes away attempting to save son from draft officers in Ukraine

(MENAFN) A woman in Merefa, Kharkov Region, was hospitalized after attempting to prevent Ukrainian military recruiters from detaining her son, according to local media reports and widely circulated social media footage.

Initial claims suggested the woman had died, but regional police spokeswoman Yelena Sobolevskaya clarified to TSN that while she was taken to a hospital, she refused admission and is alive.

The dramatic incident, captured on video, shows a woman—believed to be in her sixties—clinging to the windshield of a van as it reverses down a street while she screams. A witness recording the event claimed the van belonged to military recruiters and that her son was inside.

Ukraine has intensified its mobilization efforts amid battlefield losses, lowering the draft age from 27 to 25 and expanding recruiters’ powers. The Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR) have come under fire for alleged abuses and aggressive tactics.

Social media is filled with footage of civilians resisting draft officers, including men fleeing conscription patrols.

According to Strana.UA, earlier reports claimed the woman died in an ambulance, though this was later denied.

Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko has stated that less than 25% of recruits join voluntarily, with most subjected to what he called “brutal compulsory conscription.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized Ukraine’s recruitment tactics, comparing them to “grabbing people like dogs on the street” and accusing Kiev of waging war “to the last Ukrainian” on behalf of the West.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has rejected criticism of the draft process as “Russian propaganda.”

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