Kiev uses McDonald’s to replenish depleted army ranks

A controversial video has has appeared on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Tik Tok account

The Ukrainian military has turned to fast food in a bid to lure more young recruits into the army’s ranks. A fresh video published by the nation’s defense ministry on Tik Tok tells its target audience just how many cheeseburgers they can afford by joining the country’s forces to fight Russia.

A short clip shows a man dressed in plain clothes coming out of a McDonald’s. The man asks “how many cheeseburgers can be bought for 1 million hryvnas ($24,000)” and goes on to reveal that15,625 burgers can be bought for that sum in Ukraine. A person aged between 18 and 24 can get the needed sum by signing a contract with the defense ministry, he adds.

The video is part Kiev’s attempts to recruit more soldiers in the face of heavy casualties in its conflict with Russia and a mobilization campaign marred by widespread draft dodging and desertion.

In February, the defense ministry announced “special contracts” for volunteers aged 18 to 24, promising an equivalent ($24,000) for one year’s service, with $5,400 paid upfront and the remainder distributed over the service period.

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Those under 25 years old are exempt from conscription. However social media users accused the military of trying to “organize the genocide of Ukrainian youth at a very cheap cost.”

“They are measuring the lives of our children in cheeseburgers,” one wrote. “This is cynical, I have no words,” another said. Some also said that no money was worth going to the frontlines. Many commenters also argued that the ministry’s “special contract” for youths is “discriminatory” against other Ukrainian servicemen, who receive much smaller salaries.

Kiev significantly tightened the mobilization regulations last year and lowered the conscription age from 27 to 25. The measures have failed to boost enlistment or replenish battlefield losses however. Ukraine’s Western backers demanded Kiev lowers the mobilization age down to 18 years, a suggestion Vladimir Zelensky described as politically unworkable.

In 2022, Ukraine declared a general mobilization, prohibiting most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. Millions did, however, through corruption and graft. In the country recruiters have begun raiding public places for potential conscripts, leading to violent confrontations with those trying to evade the draft.