Mr Ruslan Kubay was surprised to receive a draft notice in late January. Registered as seriously disabled since childhood – Mr Kubay is missing both hands – he falls under a list of automatic exemptions from service.

Even more surprising, however, was the reaction of officials at the local registration office in Drohobych, near Lviv. Far from admitting their error, they doubled down and declared him fit for service. Only a social-media post and subsequent national scandal reversed the decision. “I was disgusted by how easily our blind people can start seeing,” he wrote on Facebook.