TheTerritorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR and SS or TCR) (Ukrainian:Територіальний центр комплектування та соціальної підтримки,ТЦК та СП orТЦК)[1] isUkraine's military administration body that keepsmilitary records [uk] and mobilizes the population. Starting from 2022, the TCR and SS have completely replaced Ukraine's former system of military commissariats.[2][3][4]
According to Ukrainian resolution "On the approval of the Regulation on territorial centers of recruitment and social support", local TCRs are formed, liquidated, & reorganized by theMinistry of Defense of Ukraine. The direct management of the TCR and control over their activities is carried out by the relevant operational commands, and the general command of theUkrainian Ground Forces, which coordinates the main issues of the TCR's activities with their relevant structural subdivisions of theGeneral Staff of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense. Territorial centers of recruitment and social support of theAutonomous Republic of Crimea,Kyiv,Sevastopol, andUkrainian oblasts are legal entities under public law, with each having independent balance sheets registration accounts in the Treasury authorities.[5]
In order to ensure the fulfillment of the tasks and specified functions of each TCR, structural subdivisions (departments, branches, groups, services) are formed within them. Each TCR conducts activities in accordance to the provisions with each structural division, which is approved the head of the district territorial center of recruitment and social support. Regulations on district territorial centers of staffing and social support are approved by the heads of their respective TCR.[5]
The TCR is tasked with managing theconscription andmilitary service of citizens, engaging in mobilization training of employees for mobilization civilians, managing military records of conscripts and reservists on the territory of the relevant administrative-territorial unit, the selection of candidates for contract military service, with participation in the selection of citizens for military reserve service, the preparation and mobilization of human and transport resources, ensuring the organization of social and legal protection of conscripts to the Armed Forces, managingveterans of military service andpensioners from among military personnel and members of their families, and participation in military andpatriotic education. The personnel of the TCR, as well as the transport and material and technical means of the said TCR are maintained under the budget of theMinistry of Defense of Ukraine.[5]
The number of TCR staff as of 2023 reached over 200, and were distributed among four operational commands: "North", "South", "West", and "East".[6] However, some of them have separate territorial subdivisions— so-called "departments"— together with which the territorial total number of such formations approaches or exceeds 300.[7][8]
On July 19, 2017, theGovernment of Ukraine issued an order to approve a pilot project proposed by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the formation of the TCR from August 1 to December 31, 2017, on the basis of theChernihiv Regional Military Commissariat (now the Chernihiv Regional TCR and SS).[9][10] On August 2, 2017, it was announced that starting from August 1, 2017, this pilot project was implemented not only inChernihiv, but also inKozelets of the Chernihiv region. The Kozelka District Military Commissariat (now the Second Branch of the Chernihiv RTCR and SS) also joined.[11] On November 1, 2017, at a briefing attended by experts from the Department of Defense Cooperation of theUS Embassy in Ukraine, anArmed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) representative publicized information about the results of reforming military commissariats in the TCR in these two military commissariats of the Chernihiv region.[12][13][14]
On January 12, 2018, plans were announced to implement the program inVolyn by March 2018.[15][16][17] On March 22, 2018, plans to expand the project to four more regions were announced.[18] On April 25, 2018, information about the minister of defense of Ukraine's approval of a plan to create a TCR on the basis of military commissariats without any territorial restrictions, thus on the entire territory of Ukraine, was revealed.[19][20] As of September 17, 2018, this plan provided for the reform of 111 military commissariats in the TCR in Chernihiv,Rivne,Dnipropetrovsk, andOdesa regions by the end of 2018, after which they would be implemented in all other regions of Ukraine.[21]
On May 28, 2020, a draft law was registered in theVerkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding, in particular, the renaming of the Military Committees of Ukraine to the TCR, but the process of its consideration was significantly delayed.[22] On November 1, 2020, the Ministry of Defense unilaterally renamed all military commissariats of Ukraine into territorial centers, thus creating a precedent for their further functioning outside the legal field of Ukraine. They also permanently removed the term "military commissariat" from the names of structures subordinate to it throughout the territory of Ukraine.[23] On March 30, 2021, on the basis of the above-mentioned draft law, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a corresponding law that signed by the president of Ukraine in April 2021, which was subsequently entered into legal force. Despite this, apart from cosmetic changes in the name, he did not change anything at all in the functioning of the former military commissariats, which negatively affected the image of the entire reform. Criticisms were levied against how the move left such factors as the paper record of conscripted citizens and conscripts in addition to maintaining a unified state register of conscripts, that until now for the newly named territorial centers of support and social protection was considered an additional option in functioning, and not vice versa.[23][24][22]
On February 23, 2022, the TCR completely replaced the former system of military commissariats and replaced all paper records of persons with electronic records based on the "unified state register of conscripts, conscripts and reservists" already present at the legislative level.[5]
On August 17, 2023,President of UkraineVolodomyr Zelenskyy approved the decision of theNational Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to dismiss all heads of regional TCRs in the country in connection with corruption that had taken place numerous times before.[25][26]
 | Some of this section'slisted sourcesmay not bereliable. Please help improve this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged and removed.(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Territorial recruitment and social support centers have come under considerable criticism from the Ukrainian public andhuman rights activists forillegal detentions,corruption, and errors in documentation.[26][27][28][29]
Criticism came from the secretary of the Defense Committee of the Verkhovna Rada,Roman Kostenko, who noted multiple cases where defense enterprise employees and people with vision problems were forcefully mobilized. He emphasized that healthy and motivated people should be drafted into the army, and not those who managed to be "caught" by recruitment officers.[28]
Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets condemned the actions of TCR employees who detained citizens or demanded documents from them in the middle of the street. He emphasized that the employees of military commissions do not have the right to such actions against civilians.[29]
Criticism towards the TCR and its officers are also often related to cases of wrongdoing and errors in documentation. Lawyer Roman Kichka noted that for many years, the military commissariats had incorrectly drawn up documents and incorrectly referred to the requirements of the law, which led to illegal fines against citizens who had updated their data in the Reserve+ application and appeared at regional centers to clarify data.[27][30]
 | This section maylendundue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. Pleasehelp improve it by rewriting it tocreate a more balanced presentation. Discuss andresolve this issue before removing this message.(January 2025) |
Ukrainian social media and information spaces shared several reports of conflicts between TCR employees and citizens. For example, inBaranivka,Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukrainian civilians protested against the TCR due to their involvement in the death of Serhii Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after being forcefully detained to the TCR, and later died. The TCR claimed that the man had abused alcohol, which caused him to suffer from an epileptic seizure.[31]
On June 11, 2023 inOdesa, TCR employees detained a citizen who refused to provide registration documents and took him to the TCR, from where he called anambulance. A conflict arose between ambulance workers and the TCR, which is currently being investigated under the article regarding "hooliganism" in theCriminal Code of Ukraine.[31]
News outlets reported on Nina Tronenko's statements that her 22-year-old son was detained at the train station inUzhhorod and forced to sign documents for referral to military training, despite the fact that he was declared unfit for military service in 2019 during peacetime. TheTranscarpathian TCR confirmed that the boy passed the military medical board, and was sent to the military for training.[32]
July 4, 2023, representatives of the TCR broke into the house of a Ukrainian "liable for military service" in the Khmelnytsky region.[33]
The commander, who had been convicted twice (for murder and bodily harm), killed a mobilized soldier, forced other soldiers to bury the body, and reported to the command that the murdered soldier had allegedly left the military unit without permission.[34][35]
December 19, 2024, nearKiev, the TCR and police ‘smoked’ the driver out of the car with tear gas and set him on fire.[36] December 22, 2024, according to thePeople's Deputy of UkraineArtem Dmytruk, the father of a forcibly mobilized young man whom he tried to save was killed in theOdessa TCR.[37] In general, suspicious deaths of those forcibly mobilized to the TCR are by no means isolated.[38] A man hospitalized after being beaten died from a traumatic brain injury he suffered on December 29, 2024 at theSumy TCR.[39]
January 3, 2025, inPoltava, during forced mobilization, TCR employees broke a man's leg.[40] January 4, 2025, inZaporizhzhia, those who were forcibly mobilized barricaded themselves in the basement of the TCR, not wanting to be sent to the training ground, and military commissars began to gas them.[41] On January 6, 2025, as a result of a parliamentary inquiry byOlexandr Fedienko [uk], it became known that the TCRs were ignoring the reservation of workers at critically important enterprises and were forcibly mobilizing them - while it was already becoming impossible to demobilize them.[42] There are constant cases when TCR employees forcibly mobilize people, kidnapping them on the street, and not leaving them with the opportunity to take care of their pets. InZaporizhzhia, a man and his dog were forcibly mobilized.[43] In one such case, a locked cat almost died of hunger, in another, a dog being walked was left alone on the street.[44][45]
Mayors of Ukrainian cities are summoned to the TCR and receive fines for disrupting plans for forced mobilization of the population.[46] In particular, the mayors of Drohobych andBoryslav have been summoned and fined, and they intend to appeal the fines in court.[47][48] According to the statement of the people's deputy of UkraineSerhiy Yevtushok [uk], inRivne Oblast, TCR vehicles jam communications withelectronic warfare.[49]
On February 7, 2025, inChernivtsi, during a military medical examination at the TCR, a man lost consciousness and died; he was only 32 years old.[50] This is far from the only case of death on the territory of the recruitment centers.[51]
On February 8, 2025, on theZhitomir-Kyiv highway, near thecapital, they found a beatenphysics teacher fromLviv University with a fractured skull base, as it turned out, kidnapped the day before by the TCR military. Despite the fact that teachers and lecturers are not subject to mobilization by law, he was held, forced to undergo a military medical examination. So far, the Lviv Regional TCR and SS have not commented on this case.[52][53] On February 13, 2025, a man forcibly delivered to theKhmelnytskyi TCR committed suicide while undergoing a military medical commission.[54][55] Suicides in the premises of the TCR have happened before, for example on October 22, 2024 in Poltava.[56] On February 13, 2025, the only son, whose father is blind and deaf, and whose mother is bedridden and blind, was forcibly mobilized because he did not have a certificate of care for his disabled parents.[57]
On February 14, 2025, three outrageous cases of forced mobilization were recorded in theKharkiv Oblast only: in the first video, masked TCR officers caught up with a man and used a taser on him, the man fell, after which he was dragged along the ground into a minibus; in the second video, ten police officers “pack up” one civilian; in the third video, TCR officers “packed up” a man suffering fromdiabetes, before which they beat him, tore his jacket, and did not even allow him to take the necessary medications, and the documents with the diagnosis that they presented were said to be “fake”.[58] On the same day inMykolaiv, a woman approached a group of TCR employees with a bag, after which an explosion occurred, resulting in deaths and injuries.[59] Local Telegram channels write that the woman probably took such a desperate step because of the forced mobilization of her son, who died at the front.[60] Over five days in February 2025, attacks on the TCR occurred in theRivne,Dnipropetrovsk andKhmelnytskyi regions.[61][62][63]
On March 5, 2025, inKharkiv, employees of the local army recruitment center fired a shot at a conscript running away from them, and then smashed the windows of his car.[64] On March 20, a 65-year-old pensioner fromKaniv, returning home, was illegally (forced mobilization in Ukraine up to 60 years) detained and then beaten by employees of the TCR, as a result of which he received a number of health problems: closed craniocerebral injury, coward brain, traumatic head wound, clogged chest, injury to the cervical spine, moving arterial pressure. After leaving the hospital, contacted the police and the prosecutor's office, but both refused to hold the military commissars legally accountable.[65] On March 24, 2025, TCC employees beat up a retired grandmother in Kyiv for her attempt to save a forcibly mobilized civilian.[66] On March 16, 2025, in Kharkiv, TCR employees in a van deliberately hit a cyclist and then tried to forcibly mobilize him by dragging him into the van.[67] The ombudsmanDmytro Lubinets [uk] commented on similar situations.[68]
Pacifist andphotographer died mysteriously inKharkiv in the premises of the TCR. 39-year-old Olexiy disappeared on May 11, his family and friends searched for him for several days, but to no avail. Then, on the 13th, the police called his mother and told her that he had died on May 12.[69] In the 20s of May, the Ground Forces of Ukraine reminded Ukrainians that those who obstruct the work of military personnel at the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support could face imprisonment.[70] As People's DeputyYuriy Kamelchuk said on May 30, each man-catcher from the TCR must deliver a dozen mobilized people per day.[71] On June 5, inOdessa, TCR employees beat a citizen, broke hiscollarbone, and still forcibly conscripted him into theAFU.[72]
A meeting of the TCR for theZhytomyr Oblast, held in May 2025, was posted onYouTube.[73] Local TCR leaders from settlements within the region, communicating in aSurzhyk (mixture ofUkrainian andRussian languages), discuss the “resource supply plan” (meaning living people), which must be fulfilled by at least 60%, while “supplying” forcibly mobilized people every two hours. As “legal methods of notification”, the head of the regional TCR proposes:
— calling car sales ads, thus luring citizens;
— obtaining lists of interested citizens from thepolice;
— removing employees from enterprises, including by influencing their managers;
— guardingstudents who are expelled from educational institutions, as well as students who do not have a “reservation” from mobilization;
— clarifying lists ofteenagers reaching mobilization age, as well as data on their parents;
— issue mass wanted notices, including for those with “reservations”, with the aim of revoking their “reservations” and forcibly mobilizing them.
At the same time, according to Article 17 of theConstitution of Ukraine: “TheArmed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations (note: the TCR is part of theUkrainian Ground Forces) cannot be used by anyone to restrict the rights and freedoms of citizens”.[74]
On June 4, a riot broke out among conscripts at a gathering point inKyiv, which was suppressed by special forces.[75] On June 19, a man who had been removed from military registration was forcibly taken to undergo a military medical examination. He fell from a third-floor window of theKrasnograd district TCR building. When his lawyer arrived, he was beaten by TCR employees, who broke his leg.[76]
On July 18, in Kiev, a TCR employee beat a conscript to death after several units had rejected him. After severely beating the conscript, the soldier simply left him on the parade ground, and medical personnel could only confirm his death.[77] On July 20, in Odessa, a doctor ended up in intensive care after a conflict with military personnel at a recruiting center.[78] On July 27, TCR employees cut off and hit a motorcyclist on the road, causing him to break his leg, and then tried to forcibly mobilize him.[79] In general, cutting off and knocking down motorcyclists and cyclists is a common practice for military personnel at recruitment centers, often together with thepolice.[80][81][82] InMykolaiv on July 30, a man tried to escape from the TCR during a document check and jumped off a bridge and died.[83]
On August 26, after being mobilized, a well-known breakdancer fromKropyvnytskyi died in intensive care — the TCR reports that he jumped out of a moving bus.[84][85]
In the 20th of September, employees of the TCR forcibly mobilized a man who was entitled to a deferment for caring for his bedridden, ill father.[86] On September 25, a journalist reported that schizophrenics from a psychiatric hospital inVinnytsia were being mobilized.[87]
On October 3, after a forced mobilization that TCR employees declared "voluntary," the truck driver ended up in intensive care.[88] On October 6, inCherkasy, forcibly mobilized while being transported on a bus, fell and hit his head, which caused his death.[89] On the same day, military commissars who "mobilized" a cat in the Kyiv region returned the animal to its owners, threatening to delete video evidence of the animal's abduction.[90] On October 24, the Kyivpolice have launched a criminal investigation into the death of Roman Sopin, who was injured at the TCR distribution point.[91] On the same day, inBilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, the TCR busified the funeral brigade right from the hearse.[92]
On October 30, civilians who did not want to be forcibly sent to the front as “cannon fodder” and who were at the “Seventh-Kilometer Market” put up organized resistance to the TCR raid. They overturned the “alert group”van, into which military commissars were going to forcibly stuff people (busifikace).[93] In response,criminal authority Mykola Kolesnyk, commander of the422nd Unmanned Systems Battalion “Luftwaffe” proposed to fire on civilians withstrike drones andmultiple launch rocket systems.[94] AndUkrainian Armed Forces soldier Oleg Nazarenko began to make public and indecent threats:
“But when we return, and we will definitely return,the wild nineties will seem likehoney to you, and asoldering iron in your ass will seem like a lightprostate massage.”
Alina Mikhailova, head of the medical service of the1st Assault Regiment, suggested that theSecurity Service of Ukraine humiliate those whoevade mobilization (могилизация), and that TCR employees use lethalfirearms against civilians.[95]
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine documents:
Part of theRusso-Ukrainian war | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
