Dnipro is increasingly becoming not just a major rear and logistics hub, but also a city where you can see how the very culture of military recruiting in Ukraine is changing. It was here, at the stationary point of the 1st Recruitment Center of the Ground Forces of the AFU, that a journalist from the German publication Welt recently visited, wanting to see with his own eyes how Ukrainian recruiting works beyond dry press releases and formal descriptions. The point in Dnipro itself operates on the grounds of the Central Railway Station, so that the 1st Recruitment Center, as a service helping a candidate choose a position, brigade, and go through the path to service with support at every stage, is closer to everyone. Note that currently this applies not only to civilians, but also to servicemen with AWOL status.

The stationary point in Dnipro opened in June 2025 as part of the expansion of the 1st Recruitment Center of the Ground Forces network. A full range of services is available here: professional consultations, selection of position and unit, help with passing the medical commission, psychological screening and case processing, and, since the start of the transformation, matters related to returning after AWOL. For the foreign journalist, this wasn't just a visit to another Ukrainian office, but a chance to see how, in a city living under the constant threat of shelling, a modern mechanism for bringing people into the military is being built.

The German reporter was met on-site by 1st Center recruiters. The conversation turned out frank and substantive: from what the candidate's path into the Ground Forces looks like today, to why it's critically important for Ukraine that people join the military not chaotically, but through professional recruiting. The guest was shown how the stationary point works, how initial communication with candidates proceeds, how positions are selected, and why for many people this exact format becomes a chance to end up not “somewhere in the system,” but in a specific unit.

The visit turned out to be not only professionally substantive for the German journalist, but also very “Dnipro-like” in atmosphere. During an air raid alert, the team caught several explosions in the city. This was another reminder for the guest that recruiting in Ukraine has long existed not in sterile peacetime conditions, but in the reality of a major war, where even a working meeting with the press can take place against the backdrop of sirens and distant strikes. It was exactly this contrast — between an ordinary conversation about vacancies, service, and choosing a future, and the sounds of war outside the window — that created that same powerful, almost documentary-like tension that journalists usually seek on their trips.

The journalist was particularly interested in live communication with people who come to the Center not out of curiosity, but with a specific intention to join the military. During the visit, he interviewed a candidate who, despite being removed from the military registry for unfitness, came in to process his paperwork. This story became one of the most powerful in the entire report, as it showed the main change happening today in Ukrainian recruiting: more and more people come not because they were “brought,” but because they themselves are looking for a way to be useful to their country. For the foreign observer, this was an important detail in understanding Ukrainian motivation in the war.

We want to emphasize that the Dnipro point is part of a broader system, introduced by Center chief Ruslan Furdylo, designed to make the path to service clearer, more humane, and more effective. The Center accompanies candidates from the first inquiry to full enrollment in the chosen unit, and among its regional offices, Dnipro holds an important place.

Representatives of the 1st Recruitment Center, after talking with the German journalist, didn't hide their humorous and hardworking mood. “We're lifting recruiting off its knees in Dnipro as best we can,” they commented on the outcome of the meeting. This phrase carries both self-irony and war fatigue, and at the same time a very precise sense of the moment. Because in fact it's about far more than just the work of another point at the station. It's about an attempt to build a new military culture, where a person has a chance to be heard, get a consultation, understand their own role in the military, and arrive there not by accident, but consciously.

In the end, the Welt reporter's visit to the Dnipro stationary point of the 1st Recruitment Center became more than just international attention to another Ukrainian unit. It was a moment when several important stories converged in a single frame: Ukraine during war, a city of sirens and explosions, recruiters working with people every day, and candidates coming to serve on their own initiative. It's from such stories that the new reputation of the Ukrainian military is built — not only on the front, but also in how it knows how to speak with the world and with future servicemen.

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