The Insider: Those Who Refuse To Fight Kept In Basement In Donetsk Region

• 7.11.2022, 2:39

The mobilized are threatened with being shot if they do not go to the front line.

Twenty-one Russian servicemen called up for military service as part of the so-called "partial mobilization" are being forcibly detained in a basement in the village of Zavitne Bazhannia, Donetsk Region, The Insider has reported, citing the wives and mothers of the refusers. According to them, those mobilized are threatened with being shot if they do not go to the front line.

The Insider gives the name of one of the wives of those detained in the basement - Elena Kashina. She claims that her 33-year-old husband has no military experience, in the army he repaired APCs in a garage, and his military ID card says "driver repairing and operating heavy equipment". During training at the firing range, he was only once allowed to fire a machine gun, which turned out to be faulty, and once shown how to dig trenches. After that, according to Kashina, he was sent to the front, where he was ordered to join a group of mobilized men to storm enemy positions, but he refused, stating that he did not want to kill people.

According to relatives of other servicemen who are being held in the basement, the refusers are given little or no food and no means of personal hygiene. The wives and mothers of the mobilised men have written a statement to the Russian Investigative Committee claiming that their relatives are being illegally held hostage, but have received no response.

Moreover, according to The Insider, eight servicemen worked at JSC Mining and Metallurgical Complex Dalpolymetal in Primorye Territory before their mobilization and had exemption from active duty because they were employees of the defence enterprise.