Mobilization in Russia for June 4-5, 2023 CIT Volunteer SummaryÂ
Authorities and Legislation
State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia] member and the leader of the right-wing populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia has proposed that conscripts involved in the fighting in the Belgorod region be recognized as combatants. According to him, these servicemen should receive all the benefits they are legally entitled to.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of the Belgorod region, has urged the heads of municipalities to expedite rebuilding destroyed homes. At the same time, he remarked that the funds allocated for these purposes might not suffice to cover the required repairs for everyone.
Army Recruitment and Military Service Advertising
Viktor Popov, the military commissar for the city of Engels and the Engelssky and Rovensky districts of the Saratov region, has stated that the number of residents in the area who wish to enlist under a contract has increased "manifold." However, Popov did not specify the exact number of volunteer fighters.
Mobile contract military service recruitment facilities have been opened in Vologda and Gatchina. The Ministry of Defense offers contract signing opportunities at a women's health clinic in Saint Petersburg. Advertising for the Wagner Group was noticed at a branch of Russian Post in Mtsensk, Oryol region.
A 20-year-old resident of Moscow, Aleksandr K., has published a video recording of his interaction with the police, who forcefully attempted to take him to an assembly point on Ugreshskaya Street in Moscow. Earlier, the police had brought him to the military commissariat [enlistment office] in the Akademichesky district for conscription into military service, where his documents were processed and a medical examination was conducted on the spot within a day. The doctors confirmed that the young man is fit for service. Aleksandr himself states that he has had vision problems since childhood.
Mobilized Soldiers and Volunteer Fighters
The list of casualties in the war has been updated with the names of mobilized soldiers: Azamat Kusyapov from Bashkortostan [Russia’s constituent Republic], Ivan Kashkarov from the Omsk region, Yevgeny Afanasyev and Yevgeny Permyakov from the Kursk region, Kirill Lebedev from the Ivanovo region, and Sergey Rotaru from the Vologda region.
Russian conscripts have been deployed to defend the Belgorod region against ongoing sabotage attacks, according to the report by pro-Russian "war correspondent" Alexander Sladkov. In addition to conscripts, territorial defense fighters have also joined the region's defense efforts, relieving conscripts in the trenches. It is worth noting that conscripts were mass deployed to the border with Ukraine as early as September 2022.
The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of the Sverdlovsk region has appealed for psychological support for conscripts from Yekaterinburg serving in the Belgorod region. These conscripts have witnessed the loss of fellow servicemen due to enemy strikes. However, according to Tatyana Merzlyakova, Human Rights Commissioner of the Sverdlovsk region, there is currently no talk of returning the conscripts to Yekaterinburg.
Wives of mobilized men from Syzran complain about the conditions in which their husbands are stationed at the frontline. According to the women, the mobilized soldiers live "like homeless people" and the command does not provide them with the allotted leaves.
The authorities of the Tyumen region have responded to the complaints of the wives of the mobilized soldiers from the Rosomakha [Wolverine] battalion. Officials stated that "issues of supply and management of the battalion are the prerogative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and regional authorities do not have the authority to regulate these issues." A similar response was given by representatives of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region, from which the mobilized soldiers also serve in this unit. Earlier, wives of the mobilized men complained that their husbands were placed under the command of units of the former "DPR" militia, where they were used as assault infantry.
A 23-year-old contract soldier, Daniil Glebov, from the Yaroslavl region terminated his contract with the Ministry of Defense after receiving a concussion in the war zone. Six months after rehabilitation, he decided to obtain the status of a combat veteran and the compensation due for his injury but faced a series of bureaucratic obstacles. He managed to obtain veteran status only after an intervention from journalists, but he still has not received the compensation.
Member of the municipal council of Alapayevsky district in the Sverdlovsk region Ilya Chizh volunteered to join the Wagner Group and went to war after he was convicted. Previously, the court found him guilty of intentionally causing grievous bodily harm using objects used as weapons. He was sentenced to two years in a general regime colony. Ilya Chizh did not appear for the pronouncement of the verdict and was subsequently declared wanted.
Sentences, Legal Proceedings, and Incidents
Details of the case of a 26-year-old resident of Magnitogorsk, Dmitry D., detained by FSB officers, have become known. The man is an employee of a metallurgical plant and a former contract soldier. He was accused of launching fireworks towards the local military commissariat on the night of Jun. 2. The building did not sustain any damages. After the arrest, purportedly incriminating correspondence with Ukrainians, who were giving him instructions, was allegedly discovered on Dmitry's phone. A case was opened against him for attempted terrorism, and he was also suspected of arson attacks on relay cabinets.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, a 17-year-old student from one of the Ufa colleges, German K., was detained for an attempted arson attack on a military commissariat [enlistment office] in the Chelyabinsk region. The incident occurred on the night of Jun. 4. An unknown person threw a bottle with an incendiary mixture into the building of the military commissariat and fled but was later apprehended. During the interrogation, he explained that he threw the bottle as a protest against the "special military operation". A criminal case was initiated against the young man for "attempted terrorism" and "sabotage."
During the night of Jun. 5, unidentified individuals set fire to two relay cabinets along the railway tracks in the Omsk region. The train operator noticed the fire on the Moscovka - Syropyatskoye section and immediately reported it to the emergency services. The cabinets, which house the signaling and locking system, were forced open, revealing two plastic bottles containing traces of accelerant. The police are currently investigating the circumstances of the incident and searching for those responsible.
A 27-year-old artist, Bohdan Ziza, is on trial for terrorism charges over a protest against the war he carried out in May 2022. Ziza admitted to splashing yellow and blue paint on the building of the city administration of Yevpatoria [Russian-occupied Crimea] and attempting to set it on fire using an incendiary mixture, but no fire occurred. The prosecutor has requested a sentence of 18 years in a maximum security penal colony.
The Naro-Fominsk [Moscow region] Garrison Military Court gave a contract soldier five years of a suspended sentence for going AWOL. Junior Sergeant Ivan Medvedev repeatedly appealed to his battalion command for leave but was denied each time. On Nov. 7, 2022, he decided to go AWOL hoping that after his departure the command would grant him a leave. However, they addressed the military investigative department that initiated a criminal case. On Feb. 23, 2023, Medvedev turned himself in, pleaded guilty and stated that the leave was necessary for additional treatment after an injury and caring for his disabled guardian.
On Jun. 2, in the Tula region, a show trial was held against a mobilized soldier for going AWOL. He left the base on Dec. 9, 2022, and on Jan. 20, 2023, he reported to a military commandant. The man was sentenced to five years in prison. The trial was attended by 400 military personnel (including mobilized soldiers, contract soldiers and conscripts) as well as the commanding officers of the unit. Having announced the verdict, the judge "had a conversation" with the soldiers present about criminal liability for "abandoning their service."
The court commuted the sentence of the mobilized man, Pavel Savchenkov, who stabbed his drinking buddy in a bar in Kovrov. Instead of seven, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. The defense asked that the "immoral behavior" of the victim be recognized as a mitigating circumstance, since the conflict occurred after the victim called Pavel a "murderer". The court rejected this argument, but decided against counting the fact that the crime was committed during the period of mobilization as an aggravating circumstance.
A 15-year-old schoolgirl was arrested in Murmansk for wearing a badge in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Policemen were planning to cite her with demonstration of a prohibited symbol. However, after the girl said that her dad had been killed in the war with Ukraine, the policemen restricted themselves to only checking her phone’s contents.
Last year, Nikita Lyubimov, a 23-year-old native of the village of Murzakovo in Chuvashia [Russia’s constituent republic] was released early from a penal colony to join the Wagner Group. Due to the injuries that he had got in the war, he came back home in November 2022 and, as soon as May, he beat his fellow villager, aged 56, to death. More details of the incident are provided in the article by the Idel.Realii [part of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] online media outlet.
The officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained a deserter in the so-called DPR — the last member of a group of seven combatants from the Storm Z unit who fled to the Rostov region from Soledar. According to the TASS [Russian state-owned news agency], all the fugitives were former convicts.
In the Belgorod region, traffic police officers of the Road Patrol Service accidentally injured a mobilized soldier. A car driver disregarded the demands of the police who attempted to halt the car. During the chase, the police fired eight times at the vehicle and accidentally hit a 22-year-old mobilized soldier who was also in the car. The mobilized soldier was hospitalized, while the driver received a ticket for failing to comply with the demands of the traffic police officers.
Assistance
In the Murmansk region, schoolchildren took an active part in a master class on making trench candles for the needs of the "special military operation" held in the Sopki [Hills] youth center of the Tersky district. A master class on making trench candles was also held by the Vytegorsky District Court of the Vologda region. In Buryatia [Russia’s constituent republic], an educational center at a Lamaist temple [Buddhist monastery and university] involves female residents into weaving camouflage nets. Meanwhile, residents of the Krasnoyarsk region keep sending aid to the participants in the war with Ukraine.
In the Irkutsk region, members of a group aiding mobilized soldiers demand a report on expenses. Part of the funds was transferred to the personal account of the administrator of the group supervised by the Deputy Mayor of Bodaibo and the Bodaibo district, Valentina Putrya. The administration of the group refuses to provide reports due to the fact that most purchases are made "without VAT" and receipts. In total, the group members have collected about 4 million rubles [$50,000].
Children
In the village of Beryozovka, Krasnodar region, reserve training was organized for 10th graders. Theschoolchildren had military medicine and physical training courses, as well as shooting range practice.
Children from the town of Shebekino were accommodated in a boarding school with horrible living conditions in Kaluga. After parents’ complaints, the authorities promised to relocate the children to a different camp.
Miscellaneous
The Gorodishchensky police office is looking for a contractor to repair a bomb shelter. The work is scheduled for 2024.