We republish this article from the Ukrainian anarchist group Assembly:
The step-by-step normalisation of responding by those without ties and money to buy themselves off the army with their own violence to the daily state violence is likely the main outcome of the first six months of 2026 in Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, our Kharkov region has led the country in “attacks” on staff of territorial centres for recruitment (TCRs), with 69 cases. (In the title photo you can see one of the most epic busification scenes in our city this spring, on Kharkov Divisions Street, we also published its video.) Such data from the National Police was reported by the Kiev Regional TCR as of April 12. The city of Kiev ranked second with 53, and the Dnepropetrovsk region third with 45. A total of 620 incidents have been recorded across Ukraine, while the Ground Forces Command reported 272 as of early January. However, collective clashes with pixelated and black-uniformed executioners in the region of Kharkov happen rarely, unlike in the western and central regions or the city of Odessa. Therefore, the official figures may be inflated due to the fact that anyone kidnapped and beaten can easily be labeled as the one who started a fight.
The bloody silver coins for sending others to their death literally get in the way of the throat. And if before 2026 we could report one such case per review, now they follow in a row.
So, on April 2, in the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism, a joint patrol of police and the enlistment office stopped a car for inspection on Paton Street. Inside were Lviv customs inspector Andrii Trush, born in 1991, and his younger brother, born in 1997. During a document check, the brother began to run away. Andrii stabbed one of the servicemen in the neck and allow the bro to escape. An ambulance was called for the injured TCR officer, 52-year-old Oleg Avdeyev, however he died in the vehicle.
According to the Lviv Regional Military Administration, the murdered senior lieutenant was a participant in the 1998 and 2002 Olympic Games. Since November 2025, since January he became an officer of the TCR’s group for consideration and accompaniment of administrative offenses. He did not participate in hostilities. The customs inspector was remanded in custody without bail.
Left: “Holy publican Andrey of Lvov” (in Church Slavonic). Right: the one from whom he protected his brother
That same day, a video appeared from Odessa showing some man with a chain engaging in an unequal fight with four TCR employees. He smashed their bus window, after which the mobilisers boarded the vehicle and retreated. On May 14, a similar incident occurred in the same coastal city: police patrol approached three young men and asked to see their documents. Two of them showed, but the third, a 21-year-old guy, did not have them and fled. Police caught up and detained him, which caused discontent among locals. Reportedly, two more people were also detained: a girl who tried to break the window of a police car and, presumably, a minor who was banging on the car’s window with a chain. As it later turned out, 17-year-old Alexander had smashed the window of the police car with a chain while the busified person was pushed in. Media reports also suggested that he may have stood up for a girl who had been doused with gas by police. On May 19, he was released from pre-trial detention on bail raised by concerned people and recorded a message of thanks. He still faces up to 7 years in prison. According to local social media, his mother is Irina Svishchenko, deputy head of the Primorsky District Administration. Father Alexander Svishchenko works as the chief specialist in the department of monitoring and interaction with law enforcement agencies in the Municipal Security Department of the Odessa City Council.
On the morning of April 6 in Kharkov, a 56-year-old unemployed man, fleeing an identity check, threw two airsoft grenades at manhunters and fired back with a starting pistol. When he was finally caught, he stabbed one of his pursuers in the lower abdomen and was detained within three hours. The pursuer ended up in intensive care, the shooter is suspected of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and was placed under house arrest.
Kharkov self-defender Ruslan Galimzanov. He explained his actions by saying that he had to look after his mother, born in 1949, and that he had no intention of using the grenades, but carried them just in case
At a checkpoint in Oleksandrivka in the Kirovigrad region, TCR employees found a violator of military registration rules. On the way to the TCR near the village of Pidlisne, a bus carrying a conscript overtook a Mercedes-Benz car, which caused an accident, cutting off the latter. Another man got out of the car and took a can of gasoline from the trunk. He demanded to release the captured one, threatening to set fire to the service car. The conscript got into the Mercedes-Benz, but after 10 minutes they were stopped by the cops. The driver of the Mercedes-Benz was reported on suspicion of obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The investigator applied to the court with a motion to take the suspect into custody, but the court determined another preventive measure: 24-hour house arrest until June 3.
Also in Central Ukraine, on the evening of March 31, in the village of Sosonka in the Vinnytsia region, about 100 persons blocked a TCR vehicle while attempting to mobilise a man. According to their representative Myroslava Lyashuk, during the service of the summons, one of the men ran away, after which the other threw a stone at the official car and damaged it. She also reported that after that, local residents gathered, a verbal conflict broke out, which escalated into a fight. As a result, the car was damaged and was evacuated. The cops took the TCR employees of the from the scene to avoid further conflict and prevent harm to them. On April 4 in Vinnytsia itself, during an “attempt to check documents,” a draft dodger pulled out a knife and stabbed two TCR servicemen. They were promptly taken to a medical facility. One of them was in moderate condition in the intensive care unit. The condition of the other was assessed as satisfactory.
On the evening of April 4, a fugitive military serviceman in the Rivne region threatened to blow up the cops. According to police, the 43-year-old resident of the village of Orzhiv pulled the pin on the grenade during an identity check and threatened to detonate it. Negotiations with the man lasted over three hours, after which he was detained. One of two grenades ended up in the river, while the second was defused and seized. There were no injuries. Another military man in AWOL was detained in this region on April 30. On the evening of April 29, an enlistment group, along with a community police officer, “saw a man walking with a bicycle in his hands [Terminator?] and, approaching the man to check his documents, the man opened fire with an automatic weapon at the military and police officer.” According to the same police report, he fired more than 20 shots: first at the ground, then at the car. According to another police press release, he was riding a bicycle, stopped himself near a service vehicle, pulled out an object “resembling an automatic weapon” from his bag, and started shooting. One way or other, the cop and one TCR employee were injured, and the suspect was found with his weapons in the basement of an abandoned house in the village of Verba. This is Pavlo Kalinin, born in 1978, a resident of the Dubno district. He was sent to pretrial detention and is facing 15 years in prison for attempted murder and desertion.
What it looked like through the AI eyes
On April 17, according to the Lviv Regional TCR, three people broke into the enlistment centre in Yavoriv. They allegedly attempted to attack the security guards. Cops arrived on the scene and detained two of the attackers, and began searching for another. It is not specified whether these were mobilised who were being held indoors, or whether the evening attack took place from outside.
On April 20, near the village of Strumok in the Chernivtsi region, some 29-year-old busified resident stabbed two TCR employees in the neck during transportation to the basement. Then he damaged the windows and body of the service car. Continuing his attempts to escape, he hit one of the enlistment agents in the forearm with a wrench. After escape the guy was detained and sent into custody on suspicion of attempted premeditated murder (10 to 15 years in prison).
The kidnappers received medical aid in time, and their lives were saved
On April 21 in the Sinelnikovo district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, a drunk man exploded police officers, injuring five, their press service say. The cops responded to a report of a neighbor behaving erratically. He told police he had turned on the gas and had two grenades. Cops stormed the building, and the man threw two grenades. Only one exploded. Despite his injuries, the hooligan, born in 1991, was detained. Another similar case took place on the night of June 5 in their regional centre: police received a report of a fight on Lugovskaya Street in Dnieper. While making an arrest, one of the participants in the conflict threw a grenade at them. He was killed instantly by the explosion, and four cops sustained injuries of varying severity.
On April 30, in the Volyn town of Kovel, an attempt of busification at a construction site resulted in damage to the vehicle. “Citizens threw sticks and stones at military personnel and official vehicles. One of the men jumped on the windshield, which shattered it. The rear and side windows, and the car doors were also damaged,” the Volyn Regional TCR spokeswoman said. From her words, two conscripts, aged 32 and 45, were still sent for a medical examination, but they were probably captured earlier in another neighborhood. The builders put them to flight despite the use of tear gas!
Another video of a workplace conflict appeared from Dnieper on June 2, although the exact date is unknown (it may not have been filmed this year). About 15 enlistment staff and their informal “assistants” arrived at some enterprise, and at least two dozen male workers came out to meet them. A verbal altercation resulted in the visitors being forced to leave the premises. Judging by the uniform of one of the enterprise employees, the events took place at a Metinvest plant.
On April 9, in the city of Zaporozhye, patrol police stopped a car whose 27-year-old driver was a fugitive military man. The reason for the stop was the probable involvement in a road accident. The driver did not provide documents and left the scene. The inspectors caught up with the offender. Upon seeing the police, he tried to escape again, but lost control and drove into a ditch. After that, he left the car and ran, but the patrol officers caught up with him. While talking to the driver, his 49-year-old father intervened in the conflict. He behaved aggressively, threatened with an axe, threw stones at the police officers, and used pepper spray. The father was placed under house arrest for threatening or using violence against a law enforcement officer, and the son was handed over to the Military Law Enforcement Service.
Also on May 4, in the city of Dnieper (Dnipro), a man stopped by the TCR responded by firing. Three enlistment agents were wounded. The shooter was immediately apprehended by the police; he is identified as a local resident named Dato Vashakmadze. The man who was stopped for a document check was a violator of military registration rules and was subject to mobilisation. He told state TV that after that, one of the TCR employees allegedly tried to take his phone and asked where he had “bought” the military ID card that he had provided for verification. After that, Vashakmadze noted, several people began to “twist” him. He had an officially registered traumatic pistol with him and fired a warning shot into the ground:
“After that, there was a commotion. I ran 10 meters, heard the policeman’s order to stop. I stopped, unloaded the pistol at the policeman’s order, put it on the ground and did not offer any resistance. I did not intend to somehow injure people or cause bodily harm”
According to the Odessa Regional TCR, on Tuesday, May 5, unknown ones in two cars blocked their minivan in the regional centre to repel men who were being transported for a medical examination. They broke the windows and filled the interior with tear gas. Three prisoners escaped. “Today’s operation to free three people who had been abducted from a TCR bus in Odessa marks a completely new level of self-defence for the population. The military commissars’ bus was blocked by two other vehicles, its windows smashed, and the interior filled with gas. In the confusion, the abductees managed to escape. Serious retaliatory measures from the authorities are expected to prevent the harried and desperate population from repeating this experience, which could easily escalate into a street war. The location of the incident is particularly noteworthy. It is one of the centres of old Moldavanka, 50 meters from Yaponchik’s house. Historically, it was a neighbourhood densely populated by the criminal public, who have been at odds with the law under any power. There is something unique about this place”, summarised the local left-wing historian Vyacheslav Azarov.
On May 10, in the village of Baibuzovka of the Odessa region, a joint patrol of the TCR and police stopped a man who had violated military registration rules. The passer-by had inflicted serious knife wounds on two military servicemen, and medics were fighting to save their lives. It is unclear from the report whether he was detained.
A resident of the Khmelnytsky region, born in 1965, opened fire on police on May 15. This happened in the village of Terlivka during a document check of a driver who was deprived of his driving license by court decision for driving under the influence of alcohol. A police captain was killed, and his colleague was taken to the hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the head. At the same time, as can be seen in the police footage, a burst from automatic rifle was fired from a private house. Anyway, the shooter was shot dead by a police special unit.
In Belgorod-Dnestrovsky of the Odessa region, an armed group attacked the TCR, the Odessa journalists reported on May 18, citing sources in the prosecutor’s office. Two men and a woman reportedly stormed the town hospital armed with weapons and forced the TCR to hand over a 27-year-old guy who was undergoing a medical examination. They were carrying a traumatic pistol and a hunting rifle. They then got into a car and fled. An interception operation was declared in the town, and one of the attackers was later detained.
On May 19, on Bogdan Khmelnytsky Street in Lviv, a crowd blocked and damaged a “bus of invincibility.” The video shows a cop uncuffing a kidnapped passer-by and letting him go, after which the car continues to be attacked. The regional enlistment centre called this a “factual disruption of mobilisation tasks.” If only this were done nationwide! On the same day, a video from the city of Cherkasy was published, as mobilisers drove into one of the courtyards and drove them out, while breaking the windows of their car. The crowd saved someone’s life again…
On May 26, in the village of Sakhnovshchyna in the Kharkov region, a group of locals smashed a TCR vehicle during a conflict and injured the uninvited guests. They used a telescopic baton and tear gas. Four men were detained and charged: a 36-year-old, a 34-year-old, and two 29-year-olds. What it looked like:
On May 29, near the Dream Town residential complex in Lutsk, a man refused to present his military registration documents and locked himself in his car. As states the Volyn Regional TCR, a group of teenagers later intervened, pushed with the team, and damaged the service vehicle. The man’s fate is unclear, local social media only reported that his jaw was broken by kidnappers. A similar story unfolded in the city of Khmelnytsky on June 3: football school students and their parents came to the enlistment office demanding the release of their 56-year-old coach. Relatives also say that he is caring for his 88-year-old bedridden mother and is eligible for a deferment. By the evening it became known that the coach had been released and given a combat summons. The next day, in the Kamyanets-Podilsky district of this region, a TCR employee was struck “on the head with a blunt object” while checking military registration documents, resulting in hospitalisation with a bruised wound and a concussion. The passer-by disappeared and was later detained by the investigative team at his home.
In addition to spontaneous rebels, last year the Assembly featured a Kharkov resident who attempted to conduct full-fledged revolutionary propaganda. We will not disclose his name, as he did not request it. According to the court verdict from December 30, on July 11, he posted a leaflet near a supermarket featuring “symbols of the communist totalitarian regime” and a QR code linking to the Telegram group he created, “Ultra-Left of the Kharkov region/Only practice.” A criminal case was opened just two weeks later, on July 24. The verdict also states that the detainee fully admitted his guilt, sincerely repented, has no criminal record, was born in the Donetsk region, has no dependents, is not officially employed, and has not been subject to preventive measures. The court sentenced him to three years in prison with a one-year probationary period and ordered him to find a job or register as unemployed. Two confiscated mobile phones were ordered to be confiscated, and a notebook with rough notes and six leaflets were ordered to be destroyed.
“I know and am looking for ultra-leftists who are for an independent socialist republic of Ukraine with genuine democracy and the abolition of private property (it sounds scary, but if you read it, you will understand). Who believe that fighting for Ukrainian or Russian oligarchs is pointless, as Marx, Lenin or Kropotkin explained. Who are against all, as it should be”
Although the verdict appeared in the court register right then, just under the New Year’s tree, we decided not to publish it until we received a comment from the sentenced one: “Lol, I was convicted for this case and had to move to another city. They convicted me for displaying banned symbols. I was so naive, I thought no one would even notice. But it turns out the Security Service keeps an eye on all these moves. They don’t put everyone in jail, but if you break the law, they immediately open a case. I can’t say much.” Nevertheless, the guy is not going to leave Ukraine.
But why is not the number of people taking up the path of social war growing exponentially? It should be obvious that there are numerous segments of society whose well-being is directly tied to the continuation of the war. However, the regime also has a significant loyal following among those who, in theory, should no longer care about Ukraine at all. According to a mobilised specialist from Kamenskoye in the Dnepropetrovsk region, who moved to Bulgaria last year after fleeing, it is like a religious faith:
“The Lviv IT Cluster regularly purchases millions of hryvnias worth of equipment for the TCRs. There are official articles about this on dpsu.gov.ua. With photos of the equipment and links to those who purchase it.
And then a bunch of people write that people are against the TCR and against closed borders. 😁 But it’s just the opposite – people regularly raise millions voluntarily for the TCR and the border guard service. They chip in money voluntarily because they want to help. There’s no coercion there. And this IT cluster is a group of companies, not a single one… Go to DOU and write something bad about the TCRs or the border service… you’ll immediately be trashed from head to toe and labeled a Kremlin agent. In 5 minutes. And this is the largest IT community in the country… I’m a digital nomad, I’ve been in IT for 18 years, and I get paid from the USA… They often share the screen during presentations during calls, and you can see messages there, or, for example, a list of chats from a messenger, they sometimes reveal it… Very often, Sternenko, Azov, Zelensky, Karas, Korchinsky… I’d estimate 90% of those who support the current state of affairs. On my team, about 10-15 out of 20 people support Sternenko, Budanov, Turchynov, Karas, Korchinsky. They follow them, read them, study them… Where they live, they won’t cancel your reservation and they won’t break into your house… 😁 Sitting on the couch and cheering for your own – that’s their understanding of war… that’s why Korchinsky and Sternenko are their idols. And forced mobilisation – well, these are hard times in the country. The guys from the TCR are doing hard work.
The ones I feel sorry for are those awaiting busification (let’s say 1 million) and those close to the front line (let’s say 3 million)… That’s 15% of the population… the rest are all for the party to continue at someone else’s hands… for people like me to continue to die in the infantry… Who are there to feel sorry for? Where are they peaceful?
My opinion is this: ordinary citizens should help each other and not get involved in politicians’ games. Regardless of nationality, region, etc. If everyone did this, it would be easier for everyone to fight the state and politicians. But that’s utopian. Here, an ordinary border guard boy from Rakhov is ready to catch an ordinary construction worker from Kharkov fleeing through the woods across the border, even though he might not notice… and so it is throughout society. Every ordinary citizen is ready to send another citizen to their death; everyone plays the politicians’ games. That’s why politicians live comfortably and everything is fine for them… and the ordinary population has what it has…”
Of course, our interlocutor’s assessment is greatly exaggerated (possibly due to living abroad). According to the opinion poll by the pro-governmental Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from April 20-27, in Ukrainian-government-controlled territory, there was 62% of respondents opposed the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the remnants of the Donetsk region in early March, and became 57%. Those willing to endure the war “as long as necessary” fell to 48%, down from 54% in early March. Although even such figures of support for the war in its fifth year are still enormous. Moreover, the rise of anti-war sentiment paralyzes any protest activity in the workplace, because the fear of losing reservation prevents men from fighting for even the most elementary material improvements. The industrial and financial base of “our” people’s prison is mainly located in the EU, and its invulnerability to Russian attacks is a much more important advantage than the fact that combat brigades may only have a third of their personnel.
The flight of troops by hundreds of thousands, replaced by new ones every month, does not derail the war in and of itself – both the Russian and Ukrainian armies already have entire regiments for deserters; this flight merely ties the hands of the states and prevents them from breaking out of the stagnant situation. The situation that has already dragged on so long that one side or the other could resort to a sharp escalation, desperately trying to achieve a decisive turn in their favor. Instead of praying on desertion rates, it would be far more useful to make the capture of new cannon fodder more difficult: in this review alone, there are a number of people whose names deserve to be regularly heard around the private military country embassies, along with the heroes of our previous materials: martyred with a rifle Igor P. from Odessa, life-term-facing Vadym Kuzub from Lubny, Hryhorii Kedruk from Lviv, Yuri Dmitryuk from Slavyansk… If street self-defenders know they will not be alone after being captured and their fate will attract close attention abroad, running a human safari could become much more dangerous for the catchers.
Some our other things from the first half of 2026 on the practice of social struggle in our lands have still not been translated from Russian due to a lack of resources:
Gray Streets Anger: Memories of mass looting in Kharkov during the first weeks of the war as a link in a global chain of revolts against the rising cost of living, and how today’s busification has its roots in the then catching of passers-by by each other;
No Saviour from on High Delivers: Ukraine is seeking ways to channel discontent with mobilisation terror into the decorative opposition like our city mayor;
The World Is So Huge There: Key points for safe border crossing this summer, based on testimonies from those who sought our advice along with open source monitoring;
The Feast of Those Who Choose Life: Voices of residents of Kharkov and Belgorod prepared for International Conscientious Objection Day that this war is unnecessary for our front-divided Slobozhanshchina and is imposed on us from above;
Away From Bustling and Outlaws in the Outback: The experiences and obstacles of rural autonomy outside state control on the outskirts of our region during the war.
The worst thing is that the more intense the war against war becomes, the less attention it attracts outside Ukraine. Rare direct actions, as our comrade and reader Angry Unicorn did on April 27 in the capital of Slovakia, only confirm the sad rule. Generally, the discussions that are still ongoing remain at the level of “Ukraine is bad because it is a state” and “not all Ukrainians fight voluntarily.” (“Thank you for such countering,” Ukrainian and NATO officials could say to them.) This treading water is not even addressed to the broad masses of workers influenced by pro-Ukrainian TV propaganda, but to those like the “black”-brown minions of Korchinsky, who are already openly declaring on the example of the pits for illegal jailing Ukrainian soldiers that deprivation of freedom is necessary to fight for freedom.
If you still want to waste time debating with this, you would probably have spent all of World War II trying to convince Hitler that Jews should not be burned in ovens. That is definitely not for the Assembly. We prefer to work on that supporters of “anti-colonial” and “anti-imperialist” pits have no one to put there except each other. If you would like to contribute to this challenging endeavour, we always look forward to hearing from you.
If a saucepan is nailed to the head, only a lobotomy will help! If this lobotomy is massive, it is called a revolution!