Police deployed near a local mobilisation point in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on 1 August 2025. Photo: Suspilne

Protesters and security forces clashed at a local mobilisation point in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Friday night, Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne reported, in one of the country’s largest anti-conscription demonstrations since the full-scale invasion began.

According to local media reports, a crowd of residents gathered near a stadium in the centre of Vinnytsia around 11pm on Friday, seeking the release of around 100 men who they say had been illegally conscripted and were being held there.

One local resident, Anna Tetervak, who said her father’s friend was being held behind the gate, told Suspilne that police had used tear gas to disperse the crowd. “A friend of mine now has burns to his eyes and mouth. They kicked people out and closed the gate,” she said.

“I’m here because my brother has been fighting for Ukraine for three years … and I don’t want everyone to go through what my brother is going through in the trenches,” Tetervak said.

According to estimates by local police authorities, approximately 80 protesters attended the demonstration. The protesters broke down the stadium’s gates and police began to disperse them around midnight, the hour at which the local curfew begins, though some demonstrators remained near the stadium for much of the night.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s National Police said it had launched an inquiry into the incident, adding that members of the recruitment centre had detained a man “wanted for evading military service”, which prompted around 80 people to approach the facility, some of whom attempted to break down the gates. “Police used force to push the people away from the facility,” the statement reads.

Meanwhile, Mykola Lantukh, an official from the Vinnitsya Territorial Centre of Recruitment, told Suspilne on Saturday that there was no “physical contact directly between civilians and military personnel” during the protest.