Unlawful “Recruitment Searches” in Ukraine: How TRCs and Police Detain Civilians Without Legal Grounds

In Ukraine, there is a structure known as TRC & SP — Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers. Formally, they are responsible for mobilization, registration, and providing assistance to servicemen. In practice, however, they have become the most discredited government body, engaged in forced conscription.

To justify their actions, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine implemented a digital system called “Reserve+,” through which the TRC & SP maintain an internal database of so-called “wanted” individuals — civilians they consider to be evading mobilization.

These data are shared with centralized databases accessible to the police. When police officers stop someone on the street and see that the person is “wanted” according to the TRC & SP, they are obligated to detain and deliver the individual to the military enlistment office.

However, an official response from the National Police of Ukraine (above) - confirms that there is no legal basis for declaring individuals wanted for administrative offenses, including draft evasion. Legally, TRC & SP have no authority to place civilians on wanted lists, and the police have no right to detain them on this basis.

As a result, an entirely unlawful parallel search system has been created — one that is officially denied, yet widely practiced in reality.