From "training" to the front: how to be drafted into the Russian army from the occupied territories

The spring draft campaign has begun in Russia. Since April 10, conscripts from collection points have been sent to units for further military service. In 2025, 160,000 people aged 18 to 30 will be called up for compulsory military service for a period of one year. Despite the fact that the Russian Ministry of Defense claims that the spring draft is in no way connected with the Russian war against Ukraine, residents of the occupied Ukrainian territories - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions - are also joining the ranks of Russian "conscripts". Many conscripts from these occupied parts of Ukraine, according to human rights activists, soon go to the front. According to the Ukrainian human rights organization "Eastern Human Rights Protection Group", in the fall of 2024, at least 300 people from the occupied territories were sent to serve in the Russian army - about 200 of them from Zaporizhia and Kherson regions and 100 from Luhansk and Donetsk regions. DW spoke to residents of the age of conscription from the occupied territories and human rights activists about how Russia is exerting pressure and filling up military reserves.

 

Locals forced to register for military service

 

“If I am forcibly mobilized, I will get injured,” categorically declares Alexey (name changed), a resident of the Zaporozhye region occupied by the Russian army. He is 21 years old. The young man does not want to leave the occupied territories, because his family and property are there:

“I can’t leave them. In fact, it would be like starting my life over again.”

Although Alexey has a Russian passport, he is not yet subject to military service. But, according to him, since the fall of last year, the administration set up by the Russian occupation authorities has been obliging men to register for military service. Without Russian documents, it is practically impossible to get a job or enroll in a university in the region, Alexey explains.

He claims that he personally does not know of a single case of forced conscription:

“All the local residents go there voluntarily (to the military office – Ed.) and sign contracts (with the Russian Ministry of Defense. – Ed.).” According to him, such a step is taken by pro-Russian residents and those who "do not make a difference".

A 28-year-old resident of an occupied village in the Luhansk region described a similar situation in an interview with DW. He still has Ukrainian citizenship and has not yet received a Russian passport. However, DW's interlocutors say that local administrations appointed by the Russian Federation are making life difficult for Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territory if they do not have a Russian passport. Human rights activists add that without a Russian passport it is impossible to get a SIM card from a local mobile operator.

 

Where are conscripts from the occupied territories sent?

 

Those who serve in the Russian army are initially sent to training units on Russian territory. Most often - to military units of the Southern Military District: Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Oblast, Leningrad and Moscow Military Districts. And to Crimea, which was annexed to the Russian Federation. In the territories of Ukraine occupied after the Russian invasion for security reasons, there are no Russian military units, so the "recruits" are sent to Russian territory, explains Pavlo Lisyansky, a Ukrainian human rights activist and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security.

After the "training", says Lisyansky, many "recruits" are sent to the front, after signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to him, in some cases this happens voluntarily, but often under pressure or due to the lack of an alternative. Only a small portion of recruits from the occupied territories end up in the Leningrad and Moscow regions, usually through connections and bribes, says Lisyanski: "They ask, they say, for their son to join the good troops and not go to war. Last year, about fifteen people were sent to the Leningrad region in this way."

Lisyanski suggests that the price of such a deal increases every year, as Russian military offices are obliged to fulfill the mobilization plan.

"They are trying to make up for the shortage of "contract workers" at the expense of former "recruits," the human rights activist noted.

 

"Conscripts" sign contracts and go to war

A similar case was described in the Telegram channel "Mobilization of the DPR Live": a local resident of the occupied part of the Donetsk region was sent to the Krasnodar Territory to serve his military service.

"He was told that after the expiration of the "mandate" he would go to the "SVO" zone, the commanders said that everything had already been signed for him," the author of the Telegram channel Mikhail (name changed) told DW, adding that the "conscript" plans to contact the Russian military prosecutor's office, but that he does not know the further fate of this person.

At the same time, conscription is subject not only to those who have received a Russian passport and have reached the age of 18, but also to those who have already served their military service in the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" by February 2022. Mikhail cited as an example servicemen who were sent to serve their military service in the Russian Federation.

"The DPR" calls young men of draft age by phone, invites them to the military office - those who are not registered to register, and those who are registered to come to the "appointment". I can't say how widespread it is," MIhail said.

Evasion of conscription into the Russian Armed Forces can result in a sentence of up to two years in prison.

It is practically impossible to refuse service in the Russian army, says Olga Skripnik, head of the Crimean Human Rights Group. According to her, Russia began illegally recruiting men into the army in 2015 - first in the annexed Crimea, and then in other occupied territories of Ukraine. Since then, 21 recruitment campaigns have been held.

Olga Skripnik, explains: "Before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, about 6,000 people were recruited in Crimea annually. There is no data now, but it is likely that this number has increased." The human rights activist says that the training of recruits in the training center usually lasts no more than two weeks, especially in the annexed Crimea, after which the mobilized are sent to Russian territory, and then to the front. Refusal to serve in the Russian Federation is punishable by criminal liability: Article 328 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (evasion of military service) provides for a sentence of up to two years in prison. In Crimea alone, according to human rights activists, at least 583 criminal cases were initiated. However, as reported by the Verstka publication, in the first half of 2024, none of the 427 people convicted under this article received a real punishment - three received suspended sentences, and the rest received fines.

Human Rights Activist: "Conscription is a War Crime"

 

However, the court ruling does not exempt from military service in the Russian Armed Forces, Skripnik notes. She points out that conscription into the army in the occupied territories is a war crime that violates international humanitarian law. She also insists that since 2022, Russia has been conducting forced mobilization among Ukrainians living in the occupied territories, often using them as "human shields."

"We have recorded cases when mobilized without weapons were put in front of the regular army. They were the first to attack. This happened en masse in 2022," Skripnik says.

According to the Crimean Human Rights Group, Russia has actively used conscripts from the annexed Crimea in a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Skripnik, since 2022, at least 1,873 members of the Russian military from Crimean units have died in hostilities, 116 Crimeans have been captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Not all of them are "recruits", most are "contract soldiers". Among them were taken local human rights activists "human rights advocates. Crimean residents were forcibly called up, summonses (as part of mobilization in Russia. - Ed.) were even handed out to disabled people."