Forced conscription of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territory of Ukraine by the Russian Federation: facts and legal classification
One of the tasks of Ukraine 5AM Coalition is to document the consequences of the large-scale aggression of the Russian Federation after 24 February 2022. The problem of forced conscription of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territory (TOT) is one of the widespread and massive war crimes committed during the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The recruitment of Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied territory of Ukraine to serve in the armed forces of the occupying power has been widely practiced since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2014. The scale of the problem has ramped up significantly in the context of full-scale aggression against Ukraine after the occupation forces seized new territories and launched forced conscription of the local population.
This report focuses on the problem of forced conscription of Ukrainian citizens in the TOT in the context of the full-scale aggression, in particular in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions. Accordingly, the report covers events and facts in the period from 19 February 2022 to September 2022.
While examining the problem, reports of human rights organisations (in particular, the Crimean Human Rights Group), reports and statements by Ukrainian government agencies and their representatives, international organisations were used.
Special thanks for the preparation of this report to Onysiia Syniuk, legal analyst at Human Rights Centre ZMINA; Andriy Yakovlev, managing partner at Umbrella law firm, lawyer at Regional Center for Human Rights; Mykyta Petrovets, lawyer at Regional Center for Human Rights; Darya Svyrydova, lawyer at Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group.
