This spring Russia has called more fresh recruits into military service than always in the past 14 years. At the end of March Vladimir Putin issued a decree ordering the appointment of a full of 160 1000 men between the ages of 18 and 30 for 12 months. The conscripts were to begin their service on April 10.
The Russian Ministry of Defence argues that the appointment of fresh conscripts, which takes place twice a year – in spring and autumn – has nothing to do with the war against Ukraine. However, this besides applies to men in Russia's occupied Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhia and Khersonia regions, which Moscow annexed and considers to be its territory.
According to the Ukrainian east Organization, the Human Rights Defenders Group in the fall of 2024 at least 300 people from occupied territories were incorporated into the Russian army, including about 200 from the Zaporo and Kherson circuits and 100 from the Lugansk and Donetsk circuits.
Passport, work and telephone
– If I am forcibly mobilized, I will shoot myself," says Alexi (name changed). This 21-year-old lives in Russia's occupied part of the Zaporo region, where he wants to stay with his household and all his belongings. “I would gotta start over,” he stressed.
Although Alexey now has a Russian passport, he has avoided enlistment to the military so far. Since last autumn, however, the Russian business authorities have required men to registry with draft commissions.
Alexey explains that without Russian papers it is almost impossible to find a occupation or survey at a university. However, he does not know of any cases of forced enlistment for military service. He informs that pro-Russian men voluntarily went to draft commissions and signed contracts with the Russian army.
A akin communicative is described by a 28-year-old resident of the occupied village in the Luhansk region. This man has not yet accepted a Russian passport. According to him, the business authorities make life hard for people like him. Ukrainian human rights defenders confirm that, for example, a SIM card cannot be obtained without a Russian passport due to the fact that mobile phones are under Russian control.
Military service to Ukrainians
Anyone who joins the Russian army is first sent to Russia for training, usually in barracks in the confederate regions of Russia – Rostov and Krasnodar, but besides close Petersburg or Moscow. any men are sent to the Crimea peninsula annexed by Russia.
According to Ukrainian human rights activist and head of the Institute for strategical Studies and Security, the Russian army did not make its own barracks in occupied territories Ukraine for safety reasons.
– After the training, many conscripts are sent to the front after signing a contract with the Russian army," says the expert. Sometimes it happens voluntarily, but frequently under force or due to deficiency of alternatives.
Only a fewer conscripts from the occupied territories manage to find themselves close Petersburg or Moscow thanks to acquaintances and bribes to avoid being sent to the front. According to Łysianski, last year only 15 men succeeded.
This is due to the fact that the Russian military must complete the mobilization plan and itself is under pressure. “They are trying to catch up on the deficiency of soldiers by men who have completed military service,” explains this human rights defender.
Soldiers from the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republic
This case has been described on the Telegram channel and concerns mobilization into the military in the alleged ‘Donetsk People's Republic’. A man from the occupied part of the Donetsk Oblast was sent to the Dwarf circuit for military service. He was told that he would gotta go to the front erstwhile his service was over. “The commanders said that everything had already been arranged for him,” says Mikhail (name changed) in a conversation with DW. This man wanted to contact the Russian military prosecutor. His destiny is unknown.
Not only persons who have accepted a Russian passport and are at least 18 are subject to compulsory military service, but besides those who have completed military service in the alleged ‘Donietsk and Lugansk People's Republic’ before February 2022, i.e. before the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins.
According to Mikhail, this besides includes members of the alleged "people's militias" of those self-proclaimed republics that existed between 2014 and 2020. They were sent to Russia for military service. In addition, men of conscription age in these areas are straight called upon to registry or start military service. “But I can’t say what the scope is,” he says.
Penalties for refusal of service
– Refusal to service in the Russian army is virtually impossible," says Olha Skrypnyk, the head of the Ukrainian Crimean Human Rights Defenders Group. According to her, Russia began illegal enlistment of men into the military in 2015; first in annexed Crimea and then in another occupied areas of Ukraine. – Before the Russian invasion on a full scale, about six 1000 people were enlisted in Crimea each year. presently we have no figures, but it is likely that this number has increased," explains Olha Skrypnyk.
Refusal to service in Russia may consequence in a conviction of up to 2 years imprisonment. In the assessment of human rights organisations, at least 583 criminal proceedings have been initiated in Crimea itself.
However, according to the Russian-language news service Verstka, who is critical of the Kremlin, in the first half of 2024 no 1 was sentenced to imprisonment; 3 men were given probation and the others were sentenced to fines.
Organizations talk of war crimes
However, the verdicts do not release anyone from service in the Russian army, says Skrypnyk, stressing that military conscription in the occupied territories violates global humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.
Russia has forcibly incorporated Ukrainians surviving in territories occupied since 2022 and frequently uses them as human shields. “We know the cases in which unarmed men were brought into the army before another troops, and were first attacked. This was practiced on a massive scale in 2022," says Olha Skrypnyk.
In the opinion of the “Crimean Human Rights Group”, Russia utilized many recruits from Crimea's annexed Crimea during the invasion of Ukraine. According to the activist, at least 1873 members of the Russian army have fallen from units in Crimea since 2022 and 116 have been taken prisoner by Ukrainian armed forces.
The article was originally published on the pages of the German DW Drafting.
