Kommersant: mobilised servicemen get off a train in Voronezh region, unauthorised, and flee towards Moscow

On 4 February, a group of mobilised personnel got off a train in the Voronezh region of Russia and left the region, without the command’s authorisation, newspaper Kommersant reports, citing sources. According to the newspaper, the group was made up of four servicemen, however, Russian Telegram channel Baza reports that there were six people in the group. 

Kommersant adds that in total 15 people got off the train but 11 of them came back later on. The other four were able to leave the region and head towards Moscow. It is unknown where they are at the present moment. The runaways did not have arms on them, Kommersant’s sources add.

BOLOs on the runaways have been sent out to the regional police departments. In Moscow and the suburbs, more traffic police agents have been called in on shift, Baza notes. According to the Telegram channel, some of the servicemen could have departed for Moscow in a taxi, a white Volkswagen Polo.

On 30 December, media outlet Astra reported that five Russian officers disappeared without a trace after they had written reports on refusing to take part in the war in Ukraine. Media outlet Verstka previously posted data according to which about 2,000 Russian servicemen had refused to partake in the war since February 2022. Some of them were able to return home but others are transported to special facilities located in the occupied territories where they get “re-educated”, Verstka reported.

In November, relatives of mobilised residents of Voronezh appealed to the local authorities with a call to disclose where the draftees were stationed. According to one of them, the draftees left the military base in Boguchar and headed to Valuyki, Belgorod region, on 5 October. Their relatives have not been able to contact them since.