Ukraine is struggling to mobilize men to fight the war against Russia as the conflict enters its fifth year.

The reasons why many people hesitate to enlist range from simple fear of the front line to a reluctance to fight a war with no end in sight.

This has led some Ukrainians to violently lash out at recruiting officers who try to recruit them by force.

The National Police Service’s latest report recorded more than 600 assaults on recruiting officers to date and warned that assault has become “increasingly threatening”.

In April, several recruiters were stabbed, one of them fatally. And this month in Lviv, about 200 protesters surrounded officers trying to arrest a suspected draft evader and vandalized and overturned his car.

The unrest made headlines when President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned violence against serving soldiers.

Sarah Rainsford wrote about the rise in violence.