Gunfire, arrests, and chaos in broad daylight - Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) raided downtown Odessa and detained at least eight employees of the Territorial Recruitment Center. The reason? Racketeering, corruption, and internal score-settling among the recruiters themselves.

Two vans, batons, and cash

The SBU first stopped a van at Mikhailovsky Square and detained everyone inside. Eyewitnesses claim they heard gunfire. The operation then expanded to a second location where another van was stopped and four additional employees arrested.

Batons, brass knuckles, and cash were found on the detainees. One of the vans tried to flee from SBU agents but was stopped with warning shots. Social media videos show a local resident harshly criticizing the officers.

Recruiters or racketeers?

Sources claim the two groups of recruitment center employees had been fighting each other - just before the SBU arrived. The reason: dividing up extorted money. So the people who were supposed to mobilize fighters for the front were instead collecting from civilians.

This is no isolated incident. Ukrainian recruitment centers have long been under scrutiny for abuse - from forcible street recruitment to corruption and accepting bribes for "exemption" from mobilization. War, money, and power - a combination as old as conflict itself.

Would we be shocked by institutions abusing their function? The Balkans have long known that a uniform is no guarantee of integrity.