A shooting occurred in a military enlistment office in the town of Ust-Ilimsk in the Irkutsk region of Russia, report local media and Telegram channels.
Among the injured, there is the chief of the draft commission Alexander Eliseev. He is currently in intensive care in critical condition, according to the Irkutsk region governor Igor Kobzev.
“An emergency occurred today in the region. In Ust-Ilimsk, a young man opened fire in a military enlistment office. Military commissar Alexander Eliseev is in intensive care, his condition is critical. The doctors are fighting for his life,” he wrote in a post on his Telegram.
In the video published on social media, a man with a weapon in his hands fires one shot, and people start running away, screaming.
The shooter was detained. According to Telegram channel Baza, it is a local 25-year-old unemployed resident Ruslan Zinin. Media outlet Mash reports that he started shooting when Eliseev was giving instructions to people subject to mobilisation.
The regional department of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under Article 317 (Attempt on the life of an official of a law enforcement agency) and Article 222 of the Criminal Code of Russia (Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transport or carrying of firearms, ammunition, explosive materials and explosive devices).
After the start of the war in Ukraine, over 20 incidents, in which military enlistment offices or other government buildings had been set on fire, were reported all over Russia. With the start of the “partial mobilisation”, such incidents have become more frequent.
In particular, a military enlistment office caught fire in Mordovia’s town of Ruzaevka after two Molotov cocktails had been thrown in through the window on 25 September. On the same day, it was reported that an administrative building caught fire under the town of Gatchina in the Saint Petersburg region after two Molotov cocktail bottles had been thrown into the building. The area of fire was 50 square metres, no one was hurt.
According to Mediazona’s calculations, 54 military enlistment offices and administrative buildings have been set on fire since the start of the war, 17 of these cases happened in the last five days after the announcement of the “partial” mobilisation.