Russia Shifts Tactics: Targeting Ukrainian Recruitment Centers to Undermine Mobilization — The Washington Post

Ukrainian authorities are reporting a dangerous shift in Russian military tactics: targeted attacks on military registration and enlistment offices aimed at disrupting Ukraine’s mobilization efforts. In the first days of July alone, five Recruitment Centers were hit, killing three people and injuring 88—mostly civilians.

“Last week — Kryvyi Rih, two in Poltava, one in Kremenchuk. This week — Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv. This is a noticeable trend,” said Colonel Vitaliy Sarantsev of the Land Forces Command of Ukraine. “Their goal is to disrupt the mobilization process in our country. They are trying to sow doubt and fear among citizens, creating an image of a dangerous place where it is too risky to go.”

Facing an enemy with overwhelming numerical superiority, Ukraine is under constant pressure to replenish its forces. But after three years of grueling war, enlistment is increasingly difficult, with many actively trying to avoid the draft. The attacks on mobilization institutions have only deepened these challenges.

According to Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, this wave of systematic attacks marks a new phase since the start of the full-scale invasion.

“At first, the enemy relied on information campaigns—exaggerating isolated incidents and discrediting both mobilization and the centers themselves,” Kovalenko said.

Last year, Russia escalated to sabotage: recruiting local agents, paying them, and supplying explosives in attempts to stage attacks at center entrances.

“It was terrorism by contract. But that didn’t work either—mobilization continued, and Ukrainian intelligence successfully foiled many plots,” he added.

Moscow has since turned to drone strikes as its latest tactic.

“This will not stop the mobilization,” Kovalenko emphasized. “Most of the data on citizens of draft age has long been digitized. It is simply impossible to disrupt the process in this way.”

Britain Sanctions Two Over Russia’s Use of Chemical Weapons in Ukraine

The UK has imposed sanctions on the Russian Research Institute of Applied Chemistry, as well as on the head of Russia’s radiological, chemical, and biological protection forces, Alexey Rtishchev, and his deputy, Andrey Marchenko.