Mobilization in Ukraine has effectively turned into a nationwide «game of hide-and-seek» between employees of the Territorial Recruitment Centers (TCCs), the Ukrainian equivalent of military enlistment offices, and men trying to avoid being drafted. According to The New York Times, roughly 2 million people are being sought for evading mobilization.

Ukrainian writer Alena Sinenko described the situation in an article for the US newspaper. She cited the case of a friend in Odessa who has almost stopped leaving his home. Even a routine trip to buy groceries now begins with checking social media for reports of possible TCC raids nearby.

Sinenko said this behavior has become part of an unwritten set of rules followed by many men avoiding the draft. As recruitment officers move through Ukrainian cities searching for those wanted for failing to report, the men they are looking for try to track their movements in advance and stay out of their way.

The writer also linked the refusal of some Ukrainians to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine to anger over what they see as an unequal distribution of the burden of the conflict. In her account, some people are sent into military service while others continue accumulating wealth.

Ukraine declared a general mobilization in February 2022, and it has since been extended repeatedly. Ukrainian social media regularly features videos showing forced mobilization and confrontations between civilians and recruitment officers in different cities. The account also states that TCC employees, seeking to meet mobilization targets, take virtually anyone into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including people with disabilities and fathers of large families.