‘It’s emotionally very difficult’: mobilisation squads face hostility as Ukraine tries to boost army ranks

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The military uniforms, the police escort and the black folder tucked under Pikhota’s arm combine to make the pair immediately recognisable: they are one of the Ukrainian army’s mobilisation squads.

Facing a Russian army that has superior numbers and weaponry stocks, and with Ukrainian troops at the front depleted and in need of rotation, the government has been attempting to step up the mobilisation drive over recent months.

Pimakhov’s bucket hat, Pikhota’s wraparound sunglasses and the pair’s jovial countenance sometimes give them the feel of a comedy double act, but the consequences for people of an encounter with them can be life-changing.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a key aide to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in an interview in Kyiv: “Of course there will always be communication problems, because it’s never easy to find the right words for people – for mothers, wives, families – when a person goes to war.”

They do not know that Pimakhov was wounded twice at the front: he still walks with a limp, and he sees poorly out of one eye because an incoming Grad missile hit close to where he was digging a trench, killing a friend and sending skull fragments into his face.

Watching Pikhota and Pimakhov at work in Kyiv offered an insight into the difficulties Ukraine faces recruiting new soldiers, and into the social divides opened up by two years of war, with simmering mutual resentments that may endure long after the fighting is over.

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