Every morning, Artem signs on for work as one of Ukraine’s feared recruitment officers in his home town somewhere in the country’s war-torn East.

After a short briefing, his team decides where they will go: some are sent to cafés, restaurants, even nightclubs – anywhere where young men of fighting age might be found. Then, the difficult work begins.

“Sometimes it’s like dealing with a cornered rat,” Artem told The Telegraph, as he explained how he gets his targets into vans and off to desperate military recruitment centres.

“They continue fighting even while in the vehicle. Those who resist always threaten to take revenge on our guys or their families,” he added.

After the men are rounded up into vans, Artem said, they are then forced to take a military medical examination. Those who pass are forced to a training centre to prepare to be sent to the front lines.

“Previously, we allowed people to go home and pack, but lately, they don’t return voluntarily. They hide and don’t show up. Sometimes, we have to confiscate their phones depending on the situation,” he said.

Some men have no way of telling their family and friends where they are. The Telegraph has received unverified Instagram stories from sources that show people frantically looking for anyone who might have been in contact with their loved ones recently, and adding that they are afraid that the TCC has abducted them.

One woman in Kyiv posted that she was searching for her ex-boyfriend, who had been missing for a few days. A few hours later, she posted a second story that she had found him – he had been forced to the front lines already.