Millions of Ukrainian Men Are Fleeing a Cruel Conscription System

World / August 18, 2026 They are being written out of the narrative. Teenagers walk by a military recruitment poster in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in 2024.(Andriy Andriyenko / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images) Odesa, Ukraine—A clear-eyed middle-aged man leans in closer, yelping in broken English: “I don’t want to die, understand? But they got me. Now I have to go.” He downs another shot of vodka. The restaurant terrace is full of people enjoying their shashliks. They don’t mind the man and his raucous friends, as send-off parties for newly mobilized soldiers are no longer noteworthy. They are a part of the city’s soundscape just like the moped buzzing of Russia’s 440-pound Shahed drones or the howl of air raid sirens. Every now and again these drones make car-size holes in apartment