Photo: SD Novosti Yakutii
Five people were killed in a fire that broke out in the early hours of Friday at a detention centre in the Russian Far East where soldiers who refused to return to the war in Ukraine were being held, local authorities said on Friday.
The five people who died in the fire in the city of Yakutsk, which began at approximately 2am local time, are yet to be named, the authorities wrote, citing the regional military conscription office. Seven others were hospitalised due to smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry refused to comment on the incident, which it said was a military matter, regional news channel SD Novosti Yakutii reported.
The detention centre normally houses wounded soldiers who have returned from the war in Ukraine for treatment and have refused to go back to the frontlines, according to the Free Yakutia Foundation, a regional anti-war movement, which reported in May that the soldiers were subjected to physical force and torture there.
“The servicemen have reported not being allowed to go to the toilet and patriotic music being blasted at full volume,” the foundation said. It also said the servicemen were housed in small cells, with several men to a room.
