The defense ministry says that 209 soldiers died in the first nine months of 1993. Military units often resemble mini-concentration camps, with all their attributes. New recruits suffer beatings, torture, forced labor, and constant hassles. And hazing now has a nationalist hue. The Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute on Problems of Youth reports that 60 percent of those called up try to avoid military service because of hazing.
Most deserters also cite hazing as the reason they have fled the army.
Many young men try to avoid the draft. They buy false medical documents or military records, or they bribe doctors or the employees of military commissions. A friend, who had gone into the army a short time before, was badly injured in a hazing episode and was sent home severely mentally impaired. Regulations are rarely enforced, which encourages criminal activity inside the army. The illegal sale of military property is commonplace.