For Ukrainians in Canada, new conscription rules increase pressure to fight

New laws require Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 to update their draft data with military conscription centres inside the country — including Dmytro, who has been living in Canada for 18 months.

As a result, emotions are running high among those who fled the war and those on the front lines who feel abandoned.

In the bedroom of their modest basement apartment, Dmytro is watching a chaotic scene: smartphone video from Ukraine that shows what they fear is their eventual fate, and that of their father.

In the video posted to social media earlier this month, a group of men in military fatigues try to force another man into a police car. He resists, aided by a couple of women, and eventually runs off. The women and the men in fatigues yell at each other. One man attempts a headbutt. A Ukrainian flag flaps in the background.

Dmytro, whose parents are still in Kyiv, worries their father, who is in his 50s, will be called up. The pair talk on the phone almost every week.

A 57-year-old shoemaker who Dmytro's father knows recently went to a recruitment centre to update his military data. Within days, he was fighting on the front line.

Dmytro says everyone is afraid.

"It's been constantly portrayed in media that Russian mobilization is bad, but Ukrainian mobilization is good. Yet there is no difference, currently."

Dmytro gives several reasons for avoiding the war, including doubt about whether Ukraine can regain all its territory with military power alone, and a belief that aggression only leads to more aggression in return.

"I've never been in a fight in my life, so I cannot imagine myself taking some kind of gun or any weapon at all [and] going against other people," Dmytro said.

They say being non-binary also plays a role.

"I never saw Ukraine as the place where I could be fully accepted," they said. "I love the country, but I never loved the government."

Without military registration, Dmytro can no longer get their Ukrainian passport renewed. It doesn't expire for another three and a half years, but still they worry.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada confirmed that anyone applying for permanent or temporary residence in Canada is required to provide a valid passport or travel document. However, the ministry may consider exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis.