Recruitment announcements reveal fatigue with the conflict in Ukraine

Look Here’s how the announcements evolved and what they say about changing national moods, at a time of uncertainty over whether diplomatic efforts will lead to an end to the war:

Existential struggle (early 2023)

In the spring of 2023 (Northern Hemisphere), as Ukraine prepared for a counter-offensive to recover territories occupied by Russia in the south and east, it needed men to fight. It was then that the 3rd Assault Brigade, founded by Andriy Biletsky, a far-right politician before the war, launched one of the first recruitment campaigns. The ads showed armored soldiers advancing across a devastated battlefield, while a helicopter and drone flew overhead. “Join the decisive battle,” they urged.

Six months later, the counter-offensive failed, with kyiv’s forces capturing only a few villages, at a heavy human cost. Some Ukrainians wondered if the fight was worth it. With the change in mood, the brigade launched a new campaign. It presented the war as an existential battle and showed Ukrainian fighters facing zombies and monsters.

The depiction of zombies took advantage of the Ukrainian perception that Moscow’s forces are brainwashed by Kremlin propaganda and kill mindlessly, on and off the battlefield. Russian troops have been shown to be executing Ukrainian civilians.

“We wanted to show that if you don’t fight now, darkness will prevail,” said Khrystyna Bondarenko, the brigade’s media officer.

Fighting does not mean dying (late 2023 – early 2024)

By the end of 2023, the war had descended into a bloody stalemate. The Ukrainian army needed to replenish its ranks after the failure of the counter-offensive. But with no end in sight in sight, more and more Ukrainians were hesitant to enlist. The brigades therefore changed their message. They began promoting non-combat roles to show that enlisting didn’t always mean marching to the front.

Azov, a unit of the National Guard, launched a campaign with the slogan “The armed forces need different professions.” The ads showed hands holding a stethoscope, wrench or pen, a reminder that the military also needs doctors, mechanics and administrative staff.

The 3rd Assault Brigade highlighted how new technologies – notably the drones that now flood the battlefield – are reshaping the role of soldiers. Along with posters depicting a man wielding a chainsaw, the brigade released advertisements showing goggle-wearing soldiers flying drones or working with laptops.

The army also struggled to recruit men because the enlistment process remained mired in Soviet-style bureaucracy and corruption. Many men were given roles that did not suit their abilities and given only a few weeks of training.

“People were afraid that once they entered the army, they would be sent to the front without knowing what to do,” said Vsevolod Kozhemyako, a businessman who founded the Khartiia brigade at the start of the war.

To allay these fears, Khartiia released a series of advertisements promising recruits NATO-style training and financial support. The posters showed real members of the brigade who, at times, looked more like IT professionals than soldiers, unarmed in many images.

— We always need people with good business skills, — said Kozhemyako. — So we told them that they would be used according to their skills.

It’s cool to be in the military (mid 2024 – early 2025)

Last summer (Northern hemisphere), conscription was on everyone’s lips when Ukraine launched a major mobilization campaign. A new law requires all men aged 18 to 60 to register on a government website, the first step toward a possible bill. The authorities have set an ambitious goal of recruiting 30,000 new soldiers per month.

Many men who wanted to avoid conscription went underground.

In response, the 3rd Assault Brigade launched campaigns over the next six months, portraying army life as cool. Targeting younger men needed for heist missions, the ads draw inspiration from youth culture with styles like anime. One video showed members of the brigade battling zombie-like Russian soldiers and bonding with friends at training camp. The video ended with a young man deciding to join the ranks of the unit.

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The brigade said it used artificial intelligence to produce the ads. Bondarenko, its media chief, said AI saves resources — the brigade cannot afford to pull soldiers from the front line for photo shoots — and opens up new possibilities for original content.

Another ad showed a drone pilot reclining on a beach chair, with the slogan “Summer, FPV, 3rd Assault.” With the acronym referring to drones piloted remotely with a camera, the ad played on the widely held belief that being a drone pilot was a way to participate in combat while remaining safe behind the battle lines.

This perception has changed. As drones take center stage on the battlefield, drone pilots themselves have become prime targets for enemy attacks.

3rd Assault’s most provocative campaign came last summer, when the unit ran ads showing a model lying on a soldier’s lap or hugging him on a motorcycle. The message was clear: If you join the brigade, Bondarenko said, “pretty girls will like you.”

Critics called the campaign sexist, but Bondarenko said it was very effective, attracting up to 250 applications a day to join the brigade.

National Pride (early to mid-2025)

This year, fatigue has set in across Ukraine. The message that life in the Army was good no longer resonated. So the brigades changed their approach again, this time appealing to people’s sense of pride and duty.

Azov led the effort. Over the summer, the unit aired a video commercial showing two women in a beauty salon. One of them regretted not being able to take her husband to celebrate his birthday for fear that soldiers would take him away if he left the house. The other said casually that she and her husband were planning to go to Italy.

“Really? Did your husband get an exemption?” the first woman asked.

“No,” replies the second. “Mine is in Azov.”

The beauty salon was silent.

The video shames those who evade military service and appeals to pride in joining a unit that has achieved heroic status through its fierce resistance to Russian attacks. It’s also a reminder that while martial law prohibits most civilians from leaving the country, soldiers may be allowed to go abroad while on vacation.

In another ad released this spring, Azov showed a video of a young recruit calling her mother from training camp and telling her, with a shy smile:

“Mom, I’m going to join Azov.”

Oksana Bondarenko, communications manager at Azov, said the announcement coincides with the introduction of a new government program encouraging the enlistment of young people aged 18 to 24, a group that is not subject to mobilization in Ukraine, which begins at age 25.

— Most young people say that when they decide to join the army, they are afraid to tell their parents, especially so that their mother does not get angry, — she said.

The campaign suggested that joining the military could make your family proud.

The military as a way of life (2025)

When a previous round of U.S.-led peace talks failed this year, Ukrainians began to realize they needed to prepare for an even longer war. Russia intensified its attacks in the east, while kyiv and Moscow exchanged long-range strikes to weaken each other’s war machines.

Preparing for a long fight, the army launched a major reorganization and expanded the 3rd Assault Brigades, Azov and Khartiia, assigning each additional units to command.

The newly expanded brigades began to present military service as a way of life. Khartiia published posters depicting giant uniformed soldiers working among skyscrapers, comparing them to business professionals. The campaign, under the slogan “Growing with Khartiia”, presented membership as a wise career decision.

Kozhemyako, founder of Khartiia, said the aim was to show that “it is possible to have a career in the armed forces” and learn skills that will later be useful in the civilian job market.

The 3rd Assault Campaign had a more direct message. “We are here to live,” said the slogan that accompanied photos of soldiers holding babies and playing with dogs. There were no weapons in the images – a first for the unit’s recruitment posters.

— We want to show that life continues even during war — said Khrystyna Bondarenko.

The new campaign – nearly two years after the unit’s zombie-themed ads were filled with death and guns – marked a stunning shift in tone.