The city of Konotop in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine faced a shortage of drivers and utility workers after mobilization. This was stated by Mayor Artem Semenikhin in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Glavkom on September 14.

«Most of the people who were supposed to be in the city and maintain its functionality have been taken away from me now. <…> I have buses now that I can’t put on the line because the drivers have been taken away. And buses don’t run — this is the stagnation of the economy,» the mayor said.

According to Semenikhin, on September 12, a critical situation with electricity supply occurred in the city due to damage to the energy infrastructure. He complained that «public utilities should have been at the scene and provided assistance to people, but they were not there.»

Despite this, the mayor said that he was «ready to personally hand over every draft dodger to the military enlistment office.» He drew attention to the fact that while people from the people went to the front, «majors drive cool cars with girls around the cities.»

Earlier in the day, Mykola Knyazhytsky, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, announced the demographic crisis in the country. He pointed out that 400 thousand people have left Ukraine in the last six months alone.

In May, the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, signed a law on mobilization, which increased the draft age. Many Ukrainian men have left the country to obtain a second citizenship and renounce their original one, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

Martial law has been in effect in Ukraine since February 2022. At the same time, the head of the Kiev regime signed a decree on general mobilization. Later, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly extended its validity. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.