Mobilization in Russia for Jan. 9–10, 2023, CIT volunteer summary
The Ministry of Defense will work on a response to "citizens’ initiatives", Sergei Shoigu [Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation] said during a conference call at the Ministry. According to Shoigu, the Ministry will also have to upgrade the work of draft offices in the near future: to digitize databases, establish cooperation between local and regional authorities and industry, and upgrade the civil and territorial defense system. All this, according to Shoigu, will make it possible to build up the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces and ensure the deterrence of aggression against Russia and its allies.
Conscript soldiers over 21 years old could be engaged in active combat voluntarily and after having six months of training. This was stated by a member of the Federation Council for International Affairs Sergei Tsekov: “There are conscripts of different ages: from 18 to 27 years old. The older the conscript, the more experienced, thoughtful, prudent he is. Basically, after a certain 6-month training, we can do this. I admit the engagement of conscripts by voluntary consent, but those who are over 21 years old and those who have been trained for at least six months.”
The petition of the Samara Protiv Voyny [Samara Against the War] movement has gained more than 50,000 signatures: Samara residents demand that the names of the soldiers be published in order to find out the exact number of casualties in Makiivka. However, the Military Commissar [Head of the draft office] of the region, Alexei Vdovin, refused this initiative: in his opinion, foreign intelligence services could use the lists of names. Unofficial lists compiled by relatives began to be rapidly deleted from social networks after Vdovin announced a prohibition on reporting the lists of the killed soldiers in Makiivka. Now it will be almost impossible to determine the exact number of deaths in Makiivka. The lists of the missing are also classified.
Two more names of soldiers killed in the strike on Makiivka have become known: Yuri Simonov (b. 1979) from the village of Privolzhye and Oleg Kozlov (b. 1980) from the village of Olgino. Thus, the list of the names of soldiers killed in Makiivka has reached 35 entries.
The Council of Mothers and Wives has published a plea from a woman named Yelena who claims that she can’t establish contact with her three draftee sons who had been in the building of the vocational school in Makiivka on the New Year’s night [that was hit by the AFU]. As a result of the publicity generated, the woman was able to meet face-to-face with Governor of the Samara region Dmitriy Azarov.
On Sunday, Jan. 8, the second special flight by a Ministry of Defense plane landed in the Samara region. On board were the service members who were wounded in the strike on Makiivka and underwent treatment at a hospital in Rostov-on-Don were.
Ten days after the strike on Makiivka, the Sirena Telegram channel summarizes the most important information on the incident known to date.
On Dec. 16, a group of Russian workers who went to the occupied territories to earn some money came under Ukrainian HIMARS MLRS fire. According to the official data, 11 people were killed. A person interviewed by the Svoboda [Liberty] radio claims that the actual number of people killed may exceed 80.
A 21-year-old sound engineer has been detained under suspicion of setting fire at a draft office in Bratsk. According to the ASTRA Telegram channel, Dmitry M., a sound engineer for the pro-war Bratsk TV Channel, is the suspect in the arson at a local draft office that we reported on in yesterday's summary.
Two large tents have been recently set up near a draft office in Yekaterinburg. Locals think they are for future draftees. “These are tents for the organization of service activities of the draft office,” the press service of the draft office claimed. Why the draft officers needed to urgently set up tents for service activities, the press service did not explain.
The Mobilization Telegram channel published the recording of a conversation with a 122 operator [hotline 122 is involved in resolving issues of “partial” mobilization]. The operator could not answer the channel subscriber's question about the second wave of mobilization, but once again confirmed that mobilization was only suspended, not completed.
Eight Russian mobilized soldiers who refused to fight in Ukraine were taken to the Russian Federation from a basement for refuseniks in Zavitne Bazhannya, Donetsk region, the day before. Some of them spent more than two months in this basement. Earlier, the Vesna [Spring] movement published a petition demanding the release of Russians who refused to fight from the basements in the “People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk,” as well as a template for appeals to the Investigative Committee.
Igor Anchibaev, legal adviser of the Irbizek martial arts school in the constituent Altai Republic of Russia, was killed in the war. In the village of Gorodishche, Sverdlovsk region, mobilized school bus driver Dmitry Kuzevanov was buried. There are new details about the children's hockey coach from Dzerzhinsk Alexey Chepko, whose funeral we reported on in the last summary. As it turned out, earlier the children asked the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region to return the coach home, but their appeal was ignored.
A KamAZ truck hit an UAZ military SUV with mobilized soldiers in the Lipetsk region. One of the soldiers has died, another was hospitalized due to a broken shoulder.
Russian MoD released a footage with special training machine gun operators at the territory of the so-called DPR (during the training regular servicemen, mobilized soldiers and volunteers practice in firing on the move and working in groups), and also an interview with two mobilized Krasnodar residents, deployed in the combat zone.
In Prokopyevsk, Kemerovo region, children have written letters for soldiers, moreover, all the letters were formatted the same way. Volunteers from the Vega battalion have received postcards with views of Novosibirsk with New Year’s decorations along with foodstuff aid.
The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel found out about criminal charges against a fighter of the Vityaz special forces unit, who had recently returned from the war zone. He staged a shooting at a store in the east of Moscow while visiting it to buy some cigarettes with a gun in his hand and wearing slippers. A criminal case was initiated on charges of hooliganism, a gun with defaced serial number and traumatic cartridges were seized from the man.
Igor Paskar, a suspect under the case of arson of the building of the local Federal Security Service office in Krasnodar, told of tortures following the detainment during a hearing at the Southern District Military Court. Mediazona [independent Russian media outlet] has an audio recording [of the hearing] at its disposal. Previously this accident was reported by DOXA media outlet. On June 14, Paskar threw a bottle with gasoline into the building of the local Federal Security Service office in Krasnodar, "setting fire to a door, a column and part of the wall near the door". He didn't try to escape and was detained immediately.
A resident of the town of Nazarovo, Krasnoyarsk region, Khalida Mindubayeva appeared in court twice on behalf of her mobilized son. As a result, she succeeded in recognition of the fact that her son was sent to the “special operation” illegally. Vakil Mindubayev worked as a machinist at the Achinsk alumina refinery. Together with other employees of the enterprise, he had a reserved occupation, but, despite the official confirmation, the guy was sent first for two months to training, and then to the combat zone. The woman believes that to a greater extent the fault lies with the Achinsk military commissar, who will not be punished for illegal mobilization.
The largest company of the Moscow funeral business issued another invitation to tender for the publication of posts about its activities in the media and social networks: Telegram, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki again. This year, the Ritual state budgetary institution will use the war in Ukraine topic in its publications.
A serviceman of the 35th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, who is in the combat zone now, thanks the residents of the Altai Republic for their support.
In Izhevsk, the production of drones will be arranged in a dense residential neighborhood. The authorities are closing the Italmas shopping center, where the production of drones is going to be arranged, and the tenants of retail space in the quite successful shopping center are at a loss: their lease agreements weren’t extended, and they are to move out and free up space for a military facility in one month. Locals are rightly concerned about the new dangerous “neighbor”. According to the Serditaya Chuvashia [Angry Chuvashia] Telegram channel, the police in Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic] are urging drone owners to hand them over to the Russian Army.