Donetsk, Dec 6 - DAN. Ukrainian draft boards launched a manhunt for dodgers across the country, Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Militia deputy commander Eduard Basurin said on Thursday.

“To provide manpower to understaffed army units, draft board officers, assisted by police, launched a manhunt for dodgers in the streets,” Basurin said. “Abductions, presented as law-enforcers’ operations, have increased.”

The kidnappers demand ransom from relatives, he added. Kidnapping for ransom cases were recorded in Kiev, Odessa, Lvov and Nikolayev, Basurin said adding that this happened after Ukraine introduced martial law amidst chaos in a disorganised Ukrainian army.

“Ukrainian servicemen complain to their commanders about phone calls from draft boards ordering them to arrive at the point of assembly for “conscription events,” he said. “Consequently, the Ukrainian army still lacks a coherent mobilisation system.”

On November 26, Ukraine’s Verkhovnaya Rada (parliament) approved the bill to introduce martial law in ten regions of the country. The list comprises the provinces bordering on Russia and Transniestria, the Kiev-controlled parts of the DPR and the LPR and Sea of Azov and Black Sea coast areas.

Martial law is imposed across Ukraine or some of its areas in accordance with the law “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law” to provide military authorities and leadership with unlimited power.*jk