He was a volunteer but many men in Ukraine are conscripted. You technically have a choice but the options are joining involuntary duty, going to jail, or figuring out a way to flee the country.

The reason I commented is that I faced that choice myself. I was arrested, went to court, and was given a suspended sentence conditional on reporting for service, and then left the country.

Doing that had a major personal cost, but I wasn't willing to fight for a immoral regime. It wasn't Ukraine, and perhaps the calculation in Ukraine would have been different, but the point is that claiming one doesn't have a choice is an excuse, nothing more. What it's really saying is that one isn't willing to pay the price for making a difficult choice.