The Russian city of Ulan-Ude Commandant's Service has initiated a criminal case on unauthorised abandonment of a military unit against a resident of Yakutia drafted under the “partial mobilisation”, head of the Agora human rights group Pavel Chikov reports.
This is the first such criminal case in Russia, the human rights defender notes.
The initiation of proceedings documents state that the young man was put on the personnel list of a military unit in Ulan-Ude on 23 September; a week later, on 30 September, he left the unit and began “dodging military service”.
Furthermore, the accused told his commander that he would “not be going to Ukraine or shooting any Ukrainians,” Chikov claims.
The additional part of the Criminal Code article on unauthorised abandonment of a military unit was introduced on 24 September under “mobilisation amendments” to the code. It states that the punishment for this wrongdoing is up to five years of imprisonment.
At the end of September, three days after the “partial mobilisation” announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a package of amendments to the Criminal Code related to military service.
Among them: ten years of imprisonment for voluntary surrender into captivity and refusal to participate in hostilities during martial law or armed conflict if the refusal “caused grave consequences”.
