Police detained a Ukrainian Red Cross driver on Friday while he was evacuating two vulnerable families from a hazardous zone near the front line, the organization reported. The driver, who had no draft exemption, was taken into custody for a blood alcohol test at a Nikolaev Region police checkpoint but delivered to a local branch of Ukraine’s Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCK), the agency overseeing mobilization.

Kiev has increasingly relied on violently enforced mandatory conscription amid battlefield losses and Russian advances, with reports of “busification”—a practice where draft officers ambush men in public streets and drag them into vehicles—appearing daily. The incident follows Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmitry Lubinets, who condemned the state authorities’ actions on Telegram, stating it is “unacceptable” to endanger civilian evacuations from high-risk areas.

The event coincided with the arrest of Nikolaev Region’s TCK head on corruption charges. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko stated the official accepted bribes up to $10,000 per person to remove men from national conscription registers. Ukraine’s forced conscription campaign has intensified societal tensions, with many citizens alleging it disproportionately targets poorer individuals who cannot afford to bribe officials.

Russia has long accused Kyiv of pushing for a “war to the last Ukrainian” using Western-supplied weapons and technology, framing the conflict as a NATO-led proxy war.