Summary of the mobilization in the Russian Federation for September 25-26
In Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk Region, a military commissar [head of military recruitment office] was shot. Unemployed Ruslan Zinin, born in 1997, who started the shooting, was detained. Before the shot, he shouted, according to different versions, «Now we all go home», «Nobody will fight» or «No one goes anywhere». Then, according to various sources, he shot again - from two to six times. At the same time, in the only video with shooting, only one shot is heard, after which the military commissar fell. At the time of compiling the report, the wounded head of the draft board was in intensive care in serious condition. Ruslan's mother said her son was very worried: «They said that there would be partial mobilization, but it turns out they take everyone». Eyewitnesses report that there was no metal detector in the military registration and enlistment office, and the weapon from which the attacker fired “was like from the Brother-2 [movie], ... a home-made sawn-off shotgun”.
On the night of September 25-26, another attempt was made to set fire to the military registration and enlistment office. This time in Uryupinsk, Volgograd region. The arsonist, 35-year-old Mikhail Filatov, was caught, the fire was extinguished. Before the arson, Mikhail published a manifesto. Since the beginning of the war in Russia, 54 military commissariats and administrative buildings have been set on fire. 17 arsons have been committed since the announcement of mobilization. Mediazona compiled a «Map of Fire».
A man who does not want to fight in Ukraine attempted to set himself on fire near the central bus station in Ryazan. Police and an ambulance arrived at the scene, but the man was not seriously injured.
At least 127 people were detained on September 25 at anti-mobilization protests. Of these, 100 people were detained in Makhachkala and 24 in Yakutsk. Protests in Makhachkala lasted until the evening and were accompanied by arrests, shootings and even funny cases. Today, the protests in Khasavyurt and Makhachkala continued. The head of Dagestan said that the actions against mobilization in the republic "were prepared and controlled, including from abroad".
Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak, in her video about the mobilization, invited a lawyer who suggested that after receiving the summons, anyone should immediately go to the military registration and enlistment office, and only then challenge it in court. Do not do that!
Since the announcement of mobilization on September 21, not a single criminal case or protocol under the Code of Administrative Offenses (including under Article 21.5) for evasion, failure to fulfill duties or failure to appear at the military registration and enlistment office is known, lawyer Pavel Chikov reports.
Scattered data on the number of those mobilized to the date by region continue to come in. Thus, 300 people were drafted in Kineshma, Ivanovo Region, 50 in Krasnodar, 300 in Astrakhan Region.The military commissar ofNazarovo, Krasnoyarsk Region, stated that there are no restrictions on conscription by age and the presence of military specialties. The authorities of Yakutia say that the partial mobilization measures are at the final stage, and “there is confidence” that they will be completed as early as Wednesday-Thursday.
Mobilized men continue to be sent from all over Russia. Three buses with conscripts left Naro-Fominsk, Moscow Oblast. While in Dagestan people protest against the mobilization, the neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria celebrates their leave with dancing and songs. The mobilized from Rostov Oblast were also celebrated with music. In Obninsk, Kaluga Oblast, the Mayor gave a promise to provide hot meals to the children of those mobilized. And that’s what mobilization looks like in Achinsk and Minusinsk in Krasnoyarsk Krai.
The number of those who were mobilized despite non-compliance with Russian MoD’s declared requirements is rising. Despite the Putin-signed Decree “On deferment of conscription for military service due to mobilization”, university students are receiving summons. According to the OVD-Info [Russian non-profit, non-government-funded, “foreign agent” organization for legal protection for those detained at protests] information, Viktor Kapitonov, disabled of category II, was detained and brought to the military enlistment office. Also in Moscow, a man with bilateral inguinal hernia was mobilized. In Kotlas town, a summon letter hit the box of a 2004-born young male. Nikolay Mischenko, a father of 5, who’d never been with the Army, was mobilized in the Ruza district of Moscow Oblast. In Sverdlovsk Oblast, a 59-y.o. medic was enlisted by summon. Category I disabled Mikhail Timoshenko from the Takhtamukay district of Adygea got his summon letter too. In Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Oblast, Dmitriy Astrakhantsev, an employee of the ‘enterprise of high importance’, who has never been with the military, received his summon letter. In yesterday’s sitrep we’ve mentioned the 59 year-old Viktor Tarapun, who was about to be sent to war. After some hype in the media, he was dismissed. We also reported about the 59 years old surgeon mobilized. We’d like to correct it with that those mobilized are being transferred not to Yelan, Volgograd Oblast, but to Yelanskiy town of the Kamyshlovskiy district, Sverdlovsk Oblast. There’s a training center there.
Delivered to their units, the mobilized share footage of their quartering conditions. This is how military unit quarters in Klintsy, Bryansk Oblast, look like. In Samara Oblast, the mobilized wait for quartering and burn wood. Those mobilized ones who came from Yakutia to Vladivostok, burn wood and sleep on concrete just outside of their unit’s quarters. And here’s what the mobilization appears to the Governor of the Belgorod Oblast. The mobilized, presumably from Dagestan, have to sleep on the floor of their military unit quarters, and expressing their unhappiness. In Kovrov, Vladimir Oblast mobilized published a video of their quarters and their 30 year-old uniforms. In addition, the mobilized will be banned from using smartphones. The mobilized in Guryevsk, Kemerovo Oblast, are being advised to prepare quite a list of materials before their departure. Andrey Kozyrev, 45 y.o., mobilized in Lipetsk, is being sent to “the frontline of Donbas” after just one day of training. There are reports that, in Sakharovo Center for migration, Tajik migrants [who don't really read Russian] are being fooled by a one-sheet contract obligating them to serve in the Russian military, being slipped in between the pile of papers they have to sign to enter the country.
In Moscow’s enlistment offices, those mobilized are being assigned to the “territorial defense” forces, says Pavel Chikov, the Head of the Russian Agora non-profit non-government-funded human rights protection organization.
Cases of Russians being banned from crossing the border for leave at airports in Russia have become more frequent. There were evidences of this ban at the airports of Moscow, Kazan and Yekaterinburg. And in the Rostov region, military commissar Igor Yegorov forbade people in the reserve to leave the country without a permit from the military registration and enlistment office. And in Rostov Oblast, the Military Commissar Igor Yegorov prohibited leaving country by all those who are considered as reservists, without a special paper issued by his enlistment office.
Russians may face troubles leaving to Kazakhstan and Georgia. The Kazakh paper Orda is reporting, citing their correspondent, that Russia doesn’t let men of conscript age cross the border. The same time, it is reported that the Kazakh-Russian border is already closed in Petropavlovsk. The other border crossing points are reportedly open. The Verkhniy Lars checkpoint at the Georgian border began to issue refusals referring to the mobilization law. It is reported that the Russian military (most likely border guards) came to the Verkniy Lars checkpoint with military-grade BTR armored personnel carriers (equipped with heavy machine guns) "just in case the reservists would think about breaking through the checkpoint." The very long lines to reach this checkpoint are visible clearly in a drone video. “Senator” Tsekov proposes a ban on traveling abroad for men of conscript age. "Novaya Gazeta.Europe” reports that after the announcement of “partial” mobilization, 261 000 men fled Russia. In airports, they began banning men from leaving the country in accordance with lists received from the enlistment offices.
Amid mobilization, Russian national sports teams were banned from traveling abroad.