Russian mobilization news update by CIT volunteers, 15-16 November

Military registration and enlistment offices in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug will continue to issue summonses to all those liable for military service. As stated in the district military registration and enlistment office, this is a planned procedure that will continue in order to update data on those liable for military service.

Conscripted Perm resident Mikhail Zhikharev, who fought against drunkenness among the mobilized, may be prosecuted. This was announced by the head of the Kama Center for Support of the Mobilized Konstantin Strogii. According to him, Mikhail has been sent to another unit (it’s unknown which exactly). Now the security forces are conducting a pre-investigation check due to a conflict between the military man and his subordinates. Recall that yesterday the court arrested Alexander Leshkov, who pushed and insulted an officer in the Patriot park in Moscow Region.

12 mobilized soldiers filed reports refusing to fight on the front line without training. As the wife of one of the mobilized residents of Novosibirsk told a local publication, they were brought to the front line, where they were under fire, without proper training. “Artillery worked non-stop. They’ve found some abandoned house to sleep in. There was no food or water, and no real command. They didn’t know what to do next,” the woman said. “Our husbands do not refuse to serve! But they ask to conduct a medical examination, which was never carried out, and send them to do some kind of rear work or, maybe, to a factory”.

Mobilized from the Primorsky Krai are currently being held in a basement in Zavitne Bazhannya (Donetsk Region) for refusing to fight. ”It's most likely a fake”, — commented military unit 16871 (60th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of Primorsky Krai). Two mobilized Russians who refused to fight were released from a basement in so-called DPR after ASTRA publications. The men are in Rostov Region at the moment. The measures that are to be applied to them on Russian territory are unclear. At least 13 more people are being held in this basement right now, their names are known. Relatives of the mobilized claim that there may be more prisoners.

The Ministry of Defense shows footage of regular draftees from Murmansk, Khabarovsk, Severomorsk, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, and the Stavropol Region being sent off to their assigned units.

Training of mobilized soldiers continues at the training centers operated by the Ministry of Defense. Recruits have completed individual training and are now participating in combat team building exercises (we note that the Ministry of Defense already showed this footage taken on November 11). In the Stavropol Region, soldiers practiced tactical maneuvering while shooting. On a training ground in the Chelyabinsk Region, tactical medicine training is happening where the soldiers learn how to act correctly on the battlefield and practice evacuation of the wounded, self-aid, and assisting the other wounded. In the Kaliningrad Region, musicians of the Partizan FM band held a concert for the conscripts.

Servicemen from the Western Military District including reservists called up as part of the “partial” mobilization were handed state awards for valor, courage, and selflessness demonstrated in the zone of the “special military operation”. The ministry has not specified who exactly among the mobilized received the awards.

The mobilized lieutenant Aleksey Zinenko (b. 1975) was killed on the Vuhledar axis. He served as a platoon commander of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Federation. Earlier, servicemen from that brigade sent a letter to the Primorsky Region governor complaining of heavy losses and blaming them on their commanders. Also, it was reported that Dmitriy Zaynulin (b. 1990), a resident of Zarechnoe (Sverdlovsk Region), was killed a month and a half after his mobilization. The residents of Sterlitamak Evgeny Kolomiets (mobilized at the end of September) and Albert Shavaliev were killed in the war in Ukraine. Thus, the city will bury three mobilized men today. The Belgorod resident Artem Trofimov was mobilized on September 22 and was killed on October 29. In Volgograd, a funeral will be held for Gennady Agarkov, 23, who was killed during the “special military operation”.

In Vladivostok, Colonel Vadim Boyko, responsible for working with the mobilized, died under mysterious circumstances. “He came to his office and shot a bullet into his temple,” wrote the newspaper Dalnevostochnye vedomosti (The Far East Gazette). The Baza news portal clarified that the officer was found with numerous bullet wounds in his chest. There was no suicide note. According to Baza, forensics experts found five shell casings and four Makarov pistols at the scene of his death.

In the Timashevsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, two Alexander Smirnovs were mixed up and one was mobilized instead of the other. A mobilized soldier from Moscow was sent to the front line without any training. He was taken to the Perovsky district draft office on September 25. Without a medical examination, he was immediately sent to Naro-Fominsk, and then to the Belgorod region. On November 3, he and his fellow soldiers were urgently taken to the front line between Svatove and Kupiansk. The next time he was able to get in touch was only on November 12. He has not received any payments since September 25.

The story of the appeal of Evgenia Saprykina, whose son has epilepsy, and whose husband was mobilized (we’ve written about this recently), had a twist. After the video message was published, Evgenia was given firewood and 5000 rubles. Later, the head of the Mayevsky rural settlement (Krasnodar Territory) came and asked her to record a video that she was provided with help. It is clear that such “help” and a request could only provoke a negative reaction. Then, some pro-government media reported that the issue of returning her husband, Sergei Saprykin, home was almost resolved, but the answer of the Ministry of Defense was disappointing — there were no grounds for draft exemption. Evgenia insists that she needs her husband, not handouts.

Anastasia, wife of a mobilized father-of-three from Alapaevsk, Sverdlovsk region, managed to get her husband back home. On September 27, Alexander was sent to war. Three weeks later, after the notification of the Ministry of Defense about the draft exemption for the fathers of three children, Anastasia began to appeal to every authority: the Military Prosecutor's Office, the Presidential Reception Office, a human-rights ombudsman, and the city draft office. As a result, the draft commission for mobilization, having considered all the documents, decided to return Alexander.

In the Balakhtinsky and Uzhursky districts of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the families of the mobilized will be provided with coal. This decision was made at the Operation Headquarters. The Sibugol company decided to support the residents. Uzhursky is a poor district, the total population of which is less than 30 thousand. Of these, half live in the administrative center — the city of Uzhur. According to official data, 72 citizens were mobilized from the Uzhursky district.

Schoolchildren from Khanty-Mansiysk handed over humanitarian aid, as well as drawings and letters with words of support to mobilized countrymen.

There are more complaints on the lack of payments to the mobilized. The husband of Anastasia Fomicheva from Tyumen, who is raising two children, was mobilized a month ago. But the family has not yet received the promised payments, and the woman and her children now live on maternity eight thousand rubles.