As the relatives of 31-year-old Dmitry S. told the Telegram channel “Ostorožno, novosti,” over the weekend the man was sitting on a bench with a beer bottle in his hands when men dressed in civilian clothes approached him and took him away in an unknown direction.
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Later, Dmitry informed his family that he was at the military service recruitment point “Sirius 55,” where he was forced to sign a service contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“He said that he was issued documents, bank cards. He was forced to sign the contract under duress. His passport and military ID are at home. He is married and officially employed,” said the relatives.
They contacted the prosecutor’s office, but were advised to gather additional documents and come back again.
It is noted that a similar case was recorded in Omsk last month. Then the police detained a city resident near a bus stop. According to the man’s son, his father was coming from work and was slightly intoxicated.
According to him, his father was hit in the ribs and taken to the 5th department on Moscow Street, where he was held for almost two days, subjected to physical and psychological pressure, and forced to sign a service contract. However, the man refused and was released only after relatives reported his disappearance.
Detentions aimed at forcibly sending men to war are also observed in other Russian regions.
The situation is especially tense in the Penza region, where the police organize raids involving military conscription service employees. Local residents said that the raids are supposedly aimed at identifying draft evaders, unregistered naturalized migrants, and deserters, but according to them, practically everyone is detained in turn, summons are handed out, and they are forced to sign contracts under threats.
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As “The Moscow Times” writes, reports of such actions have also been received from the city of Ulyanovsk. According to the “Idite lesom” project data, in June a 52-year-old city resident was detained near his home entrance while intoxicated. The man was then taken to the military commandant’s office, where he was forced to sign a contract. According to the organization, he soon ended up in occupied Mariupol.
Another Ulyanovsk resident was forced to sign a contract despite having lost an eye.
As stated by Grigory Sverdlov, head of the “Idite lesom” project, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Russian authorities to find volunteers willing to go to war, so they are increasing pressure on those who could potentially sign contracts with the ministry.
Among the methods used are detentions on the streets, visits by officers to homes and workplaces, as well as recruitment of debtors, conditionally sentenced persons, and recently demobilized conscripts, according to documents from regional authorities analyzed by Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International Security Affairs.
“They [the authorities] know who has debts, who is under investigation, who recently lost their driver’s license, and these are exactly the people they hunt,” he told the Financial Times newspaper.
Western analysts estimate that Russia loses more than 30,000 soldiers per month in Ukraine. Since Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin does not want to abandon his infamous “meat grinder” tactics, military recruitment officers resort to increasingly desperate methods to meet recruitment quotas, the Financial Times wrote on Monday.
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