Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Artem* is determined to never join Ukraine’s armed forces.

“If I ever fight, I won’t fight for Ukraine,” the 29-year-old from the westernmost Zakarpattia region told Al Jazeera.

A “ conscription patrol ” of three police and two military officers rounded him up in late June as he was leaving the Sunday mass at a cathedral in Uzhhorod, the regional capital.

Artem had paperwork proving that he was the only caretaker of his disabled, ailing 66-year-old mother and therefore could not be drafted.

But the patrol detained and brought him to a conscription office, where two officers took Artem to a separate room. He claimed they beat him and tried to force him to “volunteer” for military service.

When h

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