Mobilization in Russia for Mar. 24-25, 2023 CIT volunteer summary
Senator Andrey Turchak reported that families of former Interior Ministry employees who have been killed in the war will receive social benefits for purchasing or constructing housing. This was proposed by the working group on the “special military operation” issues of the State Duma [lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia].
The Vyorstka media outlet reported cases of collecting military IDs from employees of the Russian state and private enterprises. Employers do this upon the pretext of preparing draft deferral certificates and data check-ups. In some cases, mobilization orders are attached to the military IDs obliging individuals to report to draft offices.
The government of Moscow was tasked with finding 27,000 contract soldiers for the war in Ukraine, as a source in the Mayor’s office told the Sota news outlet. For now, soldiers will be recruited voluntarily; however, the Mayor’s office is convinced that if this task fails, the 2nd wave of mobilization will begin. Officials responsible for the recruitment of volunteers have already been given information about payments and salaries, which are supposed to convince citizens to participate in the war.
In the Rostov region, the unemployed are urged to enlist for military service under contract. Corresponding announcements were published by the administration of Rostov, as well as employment centers of the Semikarakorsky and Remontnensky districts of the region and in Shakhty, Bataysk, Gukov, Azov, and Donetsk. The unemployed are invited to enlist in military units of the Southern Military District.
Authorities of the Yeravninsky District of Buryatia announced the allocation of 50,000 rubles from the budget for each killed soldier, regardless of whether he is a volunteer fighter, a mobilized soldier, or a mercenary. Remarkably, lists of the killed participants in the war in Ukraine include at least 30 residents of the Yeravninsky district.
The following names were added to the list of the mobilized servicemen killed in Ukraine: Oleg Sivkov from the Sverdlovsk region, Artur Paramonov from the Arkhangelsk region, Vladimir Rogov from the Astrakhan, Alexander Grechikhin from the Oryol region and Ramin Kuzmin from Bashkortostan [Russia’s constituent republic].
The Ministry of Defense of Russia published a video showing crews consisting of mobilized soldiers being trained to use the 9K333 Verba man-portable air-defense systems and the 9K35 Strela-10 surface-to-air missile systems.
The draftees from the 504th Armored Regiment recorded another video complaining about the so-called DPR’s commanders. According to the draftees, local commanders throw them into assault without any artillery or armored vehicle support and don’t even organize the evacuation of those injured or killed. The soldiers say, “Local DPR officers would abandon their positions, leaving the Russian mobilized servicemen to fight alone.” The men on the video are asking to be moved from the People’s Militia of the so-called DPR to the regular Russian Army because now they are being used as “cannon fodder.”
A group of soldiers from the Shtorm [Storm] unit complained that, at first, they were ordered to hold their frontline positions under heavy fire for 14 days when they lost 22 men. Now, instead of being evacuated, they are ordered at gunpoint to hold the trenches in the village of Vodiane, Donetsk region. Later it was reported that they were recalled to their unit headquarters. In addition to that, the Storm unit is partially composed of illegally mobilized “DPR” residents over 50 years old. The above information was provided to the Astra Telegram channel by the relatives of the soldiers.
The Zona Solidarnosti [Solidarity zone] Telegram channel published a story of a 19-year-old Artyom Begoyan being charged with arson for setting railway relay cabinets and battery boxes on fire in Russia’s constituent Republic of Chuvashia. Since being arrested, the man was reportedly pressured and tortured by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents, who ultimately made him waive his right to counsel.
A citizen of Krasnodar, Oleg Vazhdaev, was subjected to electric shocks by the police. The young man tried to set fire to a draft office on the night of Sep. 25 because he wanted to destroy his personal file, fearing mobilization. According to his lawyer, on Sep. 29, Vazhdaev was detained and tortured at the police station. Under torture, he incriminated himself, and now he is accused not of damaging property worth 40 mln RUB [~518,000 USD], as it was before, but of terrorism: his case has been transferred to the FSB [Federal Security Service of Russia].
In accordance with the updated list of professions and positions for alternative civilian service approved by the Ministry of Labor, there is only one institution left in the Sverdlovsk region for alternative civilian service. Now residents of the region who do not want to serve in the army can work at the Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater instead. There are no other institutions offering places for alternative civilian service in the region.
Aleksandr Primenko, a mobilized soldier from the Sverdlovsk region, found despoiled aid for servicemen in a destroyed house near Makiivka in the so-called LPR. Some time later, a video appeared on the page of Nikolay Zabolotnev, the Head of the regional branch of the ruling United Russia party, on the VKontakte social network, in which Aleksandr Primenko said that he “did not understand the situation” and the boxes with the aid “were being sorted” and then distributed to servicemen.
An elderly couple from Buryatia [Russia’s constituent republic] handed over their broken GAZ-69 off-road vehicle to the Russian Armed Forces. This model was produced in the USSR from 1952 to 1973.
A citizen of the village of Urshelsky, Vladimir region, whose mobilized son was killed in hostilities in Ukraine, was given an apartment. Prior to this, the woman had been living in a house that was declared unfit to live in back in 2017.