The blast in Odessa Region comes as Kiev ramps up aggressive recruitment to fill its military ranks

A senior recruitment officer has reportedly been killed in a car explosion in Ukraine's Odessa Region on Friday, according to police and local media reports.

Investigators suspect the blast was intentional and may have been triggered remotely. Odessa regional police confirmed one fatality and said an investigation is under way, but did not name the person who was killed when a vehicle exploded in a village in Berezovsky District.

Law enforcement sources cited by local media said that the vehicle belonged to a local draft office. The Southern Courier named the victim as Colonel Oleg Nomerovsky, a top official at a regional military recruitment center.

The incident comes as Ukraine faces mounting scrutiny over its conscription practices, with the conflict with Russia now in its third year and Kiev struggling to replenish its forces.

Ukraine has been under general mobilization since 2022, barring most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. The minimum conscription age was lowered from 27 to 25 in 2024, and penalties for evading service were tightened.

Ukrainian MP Yury Kamelchuk said conscription officers are under orders to bring in 12 new recruits per day and are using aggressive tactics to meet quotas, including luring food couriers with fake delivery requests. He blasted the government's approach as disrespectful and claimed even men with health issues are being targeted.

Videos have repeatedly surfaced online showing Ukrainian officials using force to detain men in public areas, in what has become known locally as "busification," a term referring to forcibly loading recruits into unmarked vans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukrainian recruitment officers were grabbing people "like dogs on the street," contrasting it with Russia's volunteer-based enlistment. "They are catching 30 thousand people [per month] there now, and we have 50-60 thousand a month enlisting willingly," he said earlier this week.

One such video from Lutsk in western Ukraine showed soldiers dragging a food delivery worker into a white van as he resisted. The clip went viral after being shared on X. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, reacted to the video with "!!" and has previously criticized Ukraine's conscription policy, writing in November: "How many more need to die?"

Ukraine's Defense Ministry has repeatedly dismissed criticism of the mobilization process as "Russian propaganda," but Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Ivan Gavrilyuk acknowledged the issue last month, calling "busification" a "shameful phenomenon."

In response to falling voluntary enlistment, Kiev recently launched a campaign targeting men aged 18-24, offering a one-time payout of one million hryvnia ($24,000) for a year of service.

(RT.com)