Ukraine’s genuine anti-authoritarian resistance is concentrating in certain areas and revealing internal contradictions

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The long, hot summer has officially ended a month ago, yet its echoes continue to resonate across the country. As winter approaches—promising to be the harshest since 1991—hundreds of thousands or even millions of people have been backed into a corner and driven to such a state of utter desperation that they no longer think about the consequences.

No positive prospects: if you are not killed on the spot, you highly likely will be imprisoned—and, in all likelihood, no one will even know your name. No international solidarity; even if your name does become known, none of the foreign anti-militarists reading this overview will show up at embassies or other government missions to support you. All that remains is a desperate desire to sell your life dearly.

As early as last autumn, we noted that anti-war direct action in Ukraine becomes concentrated in some areas. This summer, that trend has intensified.

For instance, late in the evening on June 14, a mass confrontation involving patrol police and territorial recruitment center (TRC) personnel broke out on Balzac Avenue in Troieshchyna—a rough neighborhood in Kiev—following an attempt to forcibly detain a man of conscription age. According to the cops, the driver had committed a traffic violation and attempted to flee; during his detention, he struck a patrolman, and it subsequently emerged that he was also in violation of mobilization legislation. A crowd of several hundred people gathered at the scene, chanting "Shame!" and partially blocking traffic in order to interfere with the officers. Both sides used tear gas, and protesters damaged a service vehicle. Ultimately, the detained man was successfully taken away and transported to the TRC:

On July 29, the Kiev City TRC reported another high-profile incident: during the military medical examination at the Podolsky District TRC, a young man—who had been forcibly rounded up off the street—fatally stabbed a surgeon. She was 65 years old. According to the prosecutor's office, the 31-year-old man demanded a thorough examination, complained of a toothache, and asked to be released for a few days. "Upon realizing he was being declared fit for service, the man inflicted about 17 chaotic stab wounds on the doctor’s chest, neck, and arms. He had been carrying the knife in his bag. The woman died at the scene from her injuries." Following this news, many hoped that butchers in white coats might finally—at least occasionally—recall the Hippocratic Oath. It seems not; the others will keep laughing in response to talk about diagnoses until they, too, run into something sharp and pointed.

Vinnytsia has been a center of resisting the dictatorship for over a year. On July 6, police in this regional center stopped a bus driver and sent him to an enlistment office. In response, his colleagues—specifically drivers on routes 1A, 2A, and 2B—staged a strike, refusing to operate their routes for several hours. The following day, the regional TRC announced that the driver had been released because no military unit was willing to accept him for service; operations subsequently resumed. On July 8, in the settlement of Tyvriv, an escapee from the army fought off Military Law Enforcement Service personnel with an axe, according to the service's press office. Reports indicate that the man began to resist when asked to present his documents. Three other individuals soon joined the altercation and damaged an official vehicle. The service’s representatives then called for reinforcements from the "Scorpion" rapid response unit; meanwhile, the man armed himself with an axe and injured two members of the search team. With the help of reinforcements, he was detained and handed over to the police. Two wounded received medical attention and were hospitalized:

On July 25, a violator of military registration requirements pulled out a folding knife and struck one of the enlistment agents while being escorted to the recruitment center. The injured received medical attention, and a criminal case was opened against the self-defender. The Vinnytsia Regional TRC reported the incident without specifying the exact location. On August 18 in Vinnytsia, two masked ones armed with pepper spray reportedly rescued a man from the mobilizers after he had been forced into a van. The same facility reported that on September 4, several civilian car blocked their official vehicle transporting a kidnapped man; a group of persons then emerged from the cars, dragged the conscript out, and inflicted injuries that led to his hospitalization. Details regarding both incidents are too scarce.

On July 30, a court in Vinnytsia sentenced a local resident who, on April 4 of this year, had attempted to flee from TRC employees on a bicycle; upon being stopped, he produced a knife and wounded two military personnel. One of them sustained a penetrating stab wound to the left side of the chest, while the other suffered a non-penetrating chest wound and a puncture wound to the shoulder joint. Forensic medical examinations classified all these injuries as minor bodily harm. The defendant fully admitted his guilt and was sentenced to 3 years of actual imprisonment.

On June 14, in the village of Tyranivka near the city of Khmelnytsky, two TRC employees were injured while attempting busification on private property. One serviceman sustained a closed jaw fracture, while the other suffered soft-tissue contusions; both received medical attention without requiring hospitalization. A man born in 1983 and three unidentified individuals also damaged a Volkswagen Transporter T5 minibus. Police have opened a criminal case, but there is no information regarding the detention of those involved.

On July 28, in the village of Yizhivtsi of the Chernivtsi region, during a search in a criminal case for illegal handling of weapons, according to the police, a man grabbed a hunting rifle and opened fire. Two employees of the criminal investigation received gunshot wounds and were hospitalized, the shooter fled. To search for him, a whole police operation was launched in the region with the participation of special units, dog handlers and drone operators. On August 8, a man was discovered and detained in a room where dry grass was stored. His name is Valerii Miglei, 54 years old:

Do you remember the images of a tractor towing a Russian tank—circulated by social chauvinists early in the war as proof of the "people's war" on the Ukrainian side? They will not tell you that this machinery is also used against domestic aggressors. On March 28, 2025, near the village of Zagreblia (in the Sarny district of the Rivne region), 68-year-old pensioner Yuriy Kukharets twice rammed his tractor into the front of an enlistment Nissan X-Trail and then struck its side, attempting to push the vehicle into a ditch. He then jumped out of the cab, grabbed a wooden plank, and struck a platoon commander on the left arm. The officer sustained a closed, displaced fracture of the ulna—an injury classified as moderate in severity. The attacker also punched another military several times in the torso, though no serious injuries resulted. In court, Kukharets fully admitted his guilt, expressed remorse, and apologized to the servicemen. On June 4, 2026, a local court sentenced him to 3 years of restricted liberty with a one-year probationary period.

On July 2, in the city of Kamenskoye (formerly Dneprodzerzhinsk) of the Dnepropetrovsk region, a 50-year-old man detonated a grenade while TRC representatives and the police were checking military registration documents. A cop, a serviceman from the district TRC, and the man who threw the grenade sustained injuries of varying severity; all of them were hospitalized. Two days later, in the regional center of Dnieper, passersby attempted to intervene as a man was being forced into a van. Initially, they tried to rescue the one facing busification; shots were fired, and gas was deployed. Subsequently, stones were hurled at the TRC minibus and the accompanying passenger car. Unfortunately, the attempt to save the man was unsuccessful.

On July 16, the National Police of Ukraine reported that during a sanctioned search in the Dnepropetrovsk region, a man—who had been absent without leave from his military unit since September 2024—opened targeted fire, wounding two special forces policemen. He subsequently took his own life by shooting himself in the head. The wounded ones were hospitalized; their lives are not in danger. The search was conducted as part of a criminal investigation on fraud and migrant smuggling. Possibly, he had seen the war and realized he needed to leave and help other men avoid the same fate.

On June 30, local social media stated that a 17-year-old girl in Odessa had stabbed a mobilizer during a confrontation involving the abduction of her boyfriend. She and her dog were forcibly put into a van, during which time she inflicted a knife wound on one of the kidnappers. The 37-year-old TRC employee reportedly sustained a laceration to his right shoulder and was hospitalized.

On July 4, a conflict erupted in the resort village of Zatoka, in the south of the Odessa region, following a complaint about Russian music being played on the premises. Military serviceman Serhii Pihura was hospitalized with a concussion, a head wound, and a broken nose and arm; he had been struck with an electric stove and a metal rebar, and also strangled. Criminal investigation has been started on charges of intentionally inflicting moderate bodily harm. Ironically, the song Silence Saves by the project Ruvson was playing during the battle…

On July 5, in the Podolsky district of the Odessa region, a military serviceman used an explosive device against cops who had stopped him to check his documents. They had stopped the moped rider for a traffic violation. It was discovered that the 56-year-old driver was absent without leave; he then produced a grenade and threatened to use it. An explosion soon followed, injuring two cops and the offender. The regional police press service reported the incident. On August 2, the same region’s police press service reported that a passerby in Odessa fired several shots at personnel of a district TRC while they were conducting "public notification activities." Four employees were wounded in the shooting. A 32-year-old man was detained as a suspect, and the weapon was seized for forensic examination. On September 26, in the town of Belgorod-Dnestrovsky, an someone stabbed a recruitment agent during "notification measures" and then fled the scene. The employee was hospitalized, and his condition has stabilized. The Odessa Regional TRC provides no further details.

On August 5, 2025, on the outskirts of Izmail, patrol police attempted to stop a moped rider for a traffic violation, according to the investigation. However, he failed to stop, abruptly changed direction, and attempted to flee. After losing control of the vehicle, the man fell and began firing at the patrol car and the cops. Mykhailo Soroka, 45-year-old senior police lieutenant, sustained a fatal wound. Despite this, he managed to return fire and wound the armed man, enabling his apprehension. The Prosecutor General's Office adds that in 2014, the detainee had purchased a 9mm non-lethal (traumatic) revolver, which he subsequently converted into a lethal firearm. He also hand-manufactured 13 rounds of ammunition and kept the weapon and ammunition at home. He cited fear of mobilization as the reason for the shooting. On July 2, the court sentenced the shooter to life imprisonment.

It is no secret that our native Kharkov region officially leads the country in "attacks on TRCs" (whatever that may mean) even despite the rapid disappearance of the population; however, the kind of mass riots seen in other regions have not yet occurred here. A trend toward banding together to protect our lives and streets—like in 1918–1919 against Petliura’s pogromists—is only just beginning here (we even published a detailed speech by a Kharkov ambulance driver on how could it be organized). On June 25 in the city of Kharkov, a man wanted for evading mobilization wounded two policemen with a knife during a document check and was soon apprehended. The injured were hospitalized, and the suspect had a history of multiple prior convictions, the regional police press service reported. The following day, the Kharkov Regional TRC reported the murder of a member of a "notification group" in the city—without specifying the exact place—stating that a man stopped on the street had allegedly also used a knife and fled. On June 30, the regional police released a wanted notice for the suspect: "On June 25, around 12:00 p.m., an unidentified person inflicted two stab wounds to the abdomen of a 45-year-old man on Mechanizers Street in the Saltivskyi district of Kharkiv. After committing the crime, the attacker fled the scene. The victim was taken to a medical facility, where he died from the penetrating stab wounds." There is still no information regarding the detention of the urban ninja.

On July 12, in the village of Orelka of the same region, a 34-year-old worker performing repairs threw a rebar rod at a vehicle that was driving away with a kidnapped passerby. The flying metal struck a TRC employee in the head; he was urgently transported to a military hospital in serious condition, suffering from an open traumatic brain injury, a brain contusion, and multiple fractures of the skull and facial bones. The suspect has been remanded in custody. On July 13, the regional police reported that in Kharkov "during a check of military registration documents, a group of men actively resisted representatives of the district TRC, used pepper spray, and damaged an official vehicle." Pharaohs arriving at the scene detained five individuals and served them with notices of suspicion for disorderly conduct (punishable by up to 4 years in prison). The court ordered them to be placed under nighttime house arrest. Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Anna Kolesnikova stated that the enlistment group initially stopped two men liable for military service, after which three military personnel—two from the army and one National Guard member—arrived to assist them. According to her, one of the TRC servicemen sustained injuries:

On the morning of July 21, patrol cops and TRC personnel attempted to check the documents of a fearless samurai near the Kharkov Bus Station. The video shows him pulling out a meat cleaver; then he fled after scaring off the group. Two days later, he was detained during a document check. According to the police, he wounded a TRC during the encounter and was himself shot in the leg by a cop. The regional TRC claims that not just one, but three of their colleagues were injured.

Around August 1, another video appeared showing a crowd on Alexandrovsky Avenue in Kharkov blocking a minibus, grabbing one of the manhunters, and exchanging him for a guy who had been abducted. The authorities hushed up the incident. In this depressed industrial area near the Kharkov Tractor Plant, "buses of invincibility" run more frequently than public route buses…

Night detention in Balakleya

Ruslan Galimzanov, an unemployed Kharkov resident who, while fleeing from manhunters in the spring, threw two airsoft grenades at them, fired a starter pistol twice, and then plunged a knife into the stomach of the one who caught up with him, received a three-year prison sentence with a one-year probationary period. The court handed down this verdict on August 11. Meanwhile, on the evening of September 16 in the town of Pervomaiskyi, a 57-year-old local resident inflicted multiple knife wounds on a member of a TRC team conducting "mobilization activities" and was promptly detained. Additionally, on the night of June 8, an attempted store robbery in Balakleya turned into a vehicle pursuit. A 26-year-old resident of the Izyum district—who had prior convictions for serious crimes—threw an unidentified explosive device at a police vehicle and opened fire on his pursuers, causing them to suffer acoustic trauma. He was promptly apprehended and faces up to 15 years in prison. Another man also opened fire on policemen in Lubny of the Poltava region, according to the regional police. Reportedly, on August 14, they were checking a local 39-year-old man while investigating a crime. At one point, he attempted to flee and fired at them. One cop sustained a gunshot wound and is receiving medical attention; the shooter has been detained. Early last year, Vadym Kuzub—also from Lubny—shot dead a TRC guardman in Pyriatyn of the same region. Vadym’s case is currently in court; he is in custody without the right to bail.

However, the major battles of that summer played out in the "most nationalist" areas of Western Ukraine. Like the same month in Kharkov, the social struggle in Lviv could have reached a qualitatively new stage, with the military personnel supporting civilians against state terror: of the five persons detained and remanded in custody for 60 days following clashes with the TRC and police in Lviv on the evening of July 8, three turned out to be military servicemen. The youngest and one of the older suspects at that moment were in AWOL, the third serviceman was on leave (reportedly from the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces). According to the investigation, 23-year-old Oleg Gavrilov hit the deputy head of the district police department in the face and sprayed tear gas into an inspector's eyes. His advocate says that he sincerely repents for what he did and does not deny his guilt. Regarding two 28-year-old detainees—along with two civilians aged 21 and 45—the Security Service of Ukraine states: "These involved were the most active participants in the incident. They blocked the path of a military service vehicle, jumped on it, and damaged the vehicle." The footage shows a crowd of a couple of hundred people surrounding a vehicle, shouting "Shame!" and "Faggots!"

Several young men jumped onto the car, stomping on it and striking it with heavy objects. Subsequently, the TRC vehicle was overturned. There were numerous suggestions to rename Chervona Kalyna Avenue—where this took place—to Draft Dodger Avenue. General Kirill Budanov commented: "If today you tear the clothes off and beat a serviceman of your own army, think about who will defend you tomorrow against an enemy army that will do the exact same thing—beating you and tearing the clothes off you." It seems he is simply unaware of our readers like GNIP, and that they are ready to hold back any imperial invasion even if Ukraine were left without a single soldier...

Historically, in the 1980s, apartments in Sykhiv were allocated primarily to workers from Lviv’s large plants and to migrants from the surrounding region, cementing its reputation as a "proletarian" suburb. However, the area is still far removed from proletarian class radicalism: following the clashes, far-right veterans and repressive bodies quickly forced the youths to apologize on camera and chant in unison, "Glory to the TRC!" Dmytro Korchynsky, the chief of some Russian "anarcho"-fascists, explicitly called for "completely clearing out the district using TRC forces" and mobilizing "ALL men of the appropriate age in Sykhiv." One of the adults publicly promised to join the Armed Forces, and an active-duty serviceman on leave also apologized. However, this practice works both ways: when, a month later, a recruitment center employee in Odessa grabbed a 13-year-old boy by the throat and began strangling him right next to a minibus—allegedly for throwing stones at him—local combat veterans caught him and forced to apologize himself.

On the evening of August 21, on General Chuprynka Street in Lviv, a passerby reportedly became aggressive during a document check, pulled out a knife, and stabbed an enlistment agent in the neck. A cop shot the "attacker" and detained him. The TRC junior sergeant died at the scene from the wound. He was 55-year-old Oleksandr Bodnar; the name of the 25-year-old suspect is unknown. This marks the third such fatality in the city since last December:

On September 17, in the town of Mykolaiv (the same Lviv region), an explosive device was thrown from the passenger seat of a Daewoo Lanos car as it drove past the open gates of the Stryi District TRC. A 55-year-old serviceman stationed at the facility was wounded and hospitalized in moderate condition. The Security Service of Ukraine classified the attack as a terrorist act, repressive forces promptly identified and detained two men suspected of involvement in the explosion.

At the end of the summer, the police of Ternopil reported about a large-scale riot: "When persons who could evade military duty were discovered, a conflict arose between representatives of the TRC and local residents. The event took place on August 25 around 8:00 p.m. on Les Kurbas Street. During the conversation with one of the men, citizens began to approach the service car. They began to beat the vehicle and entered into a dispute with TRC employees. Employees of the TRC received bodily injuries." According to local social media, there was one mobilizer in the car who did not manage to escape. He was repelled by the arriving police. After the cops left, the residents staged a march. Judging by the video, young people mainly participated in the protest, they chanted Nazi slogans such as "Glory to Ukraine" and "Ukraine Above All." The removal of the saucepan from the head takes place at different speeds in different regions.

On the evening of August 20 in Lutsk, a group of about 30 civilians damaged an enlistment vehicle and beat up its staff. The altercation took place on Defenders of Ukraine (sic!) Street. As a result of the scuffle, two TRC employees sustained injuries, including numerous bruises and abrasions. Notably, one of the protestors threw shards of glass at the military personnel. All the windows and headlights of the service van were smashed, and all the tires were slashed. Additionally, a radio, a body camera, and the vehicle's keys were stolen from the van. There have been no reports of injuries among the civilians.

The Telegram channel White Sun published this photo of the participants, explaining that "youth is rebelling against the bureaucratization of the street movement" and "against the fusion of patriotism with servility toward the oligarchy." In fact, these dudes salute everyone who, for years, has viewed our reviews as a source of aesthetic satisfaction rather than a guide to action. We clearly warned more than two years ago: if talk of "no war but the class war" remains an empty formality that never leaves the blogosphere, sooner or later someone will replace it with "no war but the race war." Just yesterday, a court in Lviv sentenced Vyacheslav Zinchenko—another "autonomous revolutionary racist"—to life imprisonment for the 2024 murder of the old-school fascist Iryna Farion. From Zinchenko’s point of view, her incitement of hatred against Russian-speaking Ukrainians was undermining the white unity. He did not admit his guilt, although throughout the trial it never substantively articulated its response to the prosecution’s position.

Since the possibility of fleeing the country and even unauthorized leaving one’s military unit is at its lowest point this year since the start of the war, the protest potential is more and more likely to erupt into an armed confrontation. At the same time, since Ukraine sits in the backyard between the EU and Russia, without inspiring examples of anarchist struggle in more developed countries (at the very least, in the form of successful campaigns for Ukraine’s jailed war resisters, if defeating the NATO proxy is not yet possible), there is little chance that the spontaneous anti-state struggle of workers and youth will take on an ideological character—and even less chance that its ideology would be anything less reactionary than the currently ruling far-right regime.

You could, of course, keep watching that blue-and-yellow Island of Misfortune with a bucket of popcorn in hand. Just do not get offended later if NATO drives you to fight either—to replace our dead neighbors and classmates.