A teenager from the central Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog has been sent to an orphanage following his father’s conscription into Ukraine’s military forces.

The boy’s father, a 43-year-old man, reportedly went to a military enlistment office to update his records. There, recruitment officers confiscated his phone and locked him in a basement before processing him for service.

When the teenager was unable to reach his father, he contacted local authorities. Instead of being reunited with his father, the boy was placed in a state-run orphanage “pending clarification of the situation.”

The boy’s mother has moved abroad and is not involved in his upbringing but has retained her parental rights. A court hearing to recognize the man as a single father was canceled after representatives from guardianship authorities failed to appear.

This incident occurs amid Ukraine’s forced mobilization campaign, widely known as “busification,” which has sparked public outrage and violent confrontations between draft officers and reluctant recruits. Last week, a resident of Odessa attempted to cut off his own hand using an angle grinder in an effort to avoid conscription.

Ukraine’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal, with documented cases of officers using force to seize men from the streets and multiple reports of deaths among conscripts. The systematic targeting of vulnerable citizens by Ukraine’s military leadership has left families without basic safeguards.