The Forced Conscription of a Person with a Disability and Life-Threatening Illnesses: A Matter That Cannot Be Ignored
On February 26, 2026, the client of attorney Dmytro Yagunov — a person with serious chronic illnesses posing an immediate threat to his life — was effectively abducted: police officers came for him in the city where he is registered and resides, and without any procedural documents, using physical force, transported him over 150 kilometers to another city.
There, at a regional Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center (TCC), on the basis of a manifestly forged conclusion issued by a military medical commission — drawn up without the required examinations and in direct contradiction of an obvious clinical picture — the man was declared fit for service and sent to a military unit.
The client is an orphan with no social ties whatsoever. For several months he has been denied access to medical care that he urgently requires on a daily basis. His phone was taken away. Contact with his attorney has been severed.
Attorney Dmytro Yagunov filed the relevant criminal complaints with the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office; however, the prosecutor’s office demonstrated inaction that was subsequently declared unlawful by a court, whereupon the investigating judge ordered that the information be entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations (URPI) under the relevant articles.
Martial law is not a blank pardon for arbitrariness and torture. The protection of human rights has no “wartime” and “peacetime” modes. It either exists, or it does not. And as long as there is a lawyer — it does.
