Mobilization in the Russian army: how are people recruited into the army in the occupied territories?

 

Mandatory issuance of a passport

 

Blackmail, threats, insults - three words that quite eloquently describe the process of obtaining a passport in the occupation.

"My impression is that they have simply empowered local officials to come up with mechanisms that can be used to 'force people to take passports.' Whoever wants to, does it. Some restrict access to medical services, for example insulin. Someone is making a video that people without passports are being deported. Someone says that a child cannot continue his education without a Russian passport, nor receive an education document without a Russian passport," says Aljona Lunjova, director of legal affairs at the ZMINA Human Rights Center.

Russian passports in the occupied territories began to be issued according to the simplest scheme since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After all, if earlier residents of the occupied part of Donbass had to go to the Rostov region to get a document, now it is enough, for example, to get sick.

"Many hospitals have actually set up small centers to provide these administrative services, and the key thing is that if you want to use medical services, go ahead and apply for a Russian passport, then the hospital will show that you have applied for a Russian passport. And this practice, unfortunately, is practiced by the Russian occupiers in many temporarily occupied settlements. In other words, it is about such a general artificial aggravation of the humanitarian crisis that people suffer," says Ostap, spokesman for the Center of National Resistance.  

 

"According to their information, they have allegedly already issued around one million passports. We are talking about those territories that have been temporarily occupied since 2022. Well, of course, this is some kind of PR action, including that they want to show that the population of the temporarily occupied territories accepts the Russian government, the occupation, and that's why they are trying to get Russian passports en masse. Namely, according to the information available in the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), 19,000 passports were issued in the temporarily occupied Melitopol. Well, you understand, they say about a million, but in reality the numbers are, of course, different," says Andriy Chernyak, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

According to our sources, around 450,000 people have already received the document in the "newly occupied" territories. According to Ukrainian intelligence services, a total of about 1.4 million passports were issued in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where the "DPR" and "LPR" groups operate.

"At the same time, there are constant checks, constant filtering measures. And during these inspections, the occupiers simply destroy Ukrainian documents. A person has nothing left when he has no documents - he is nobody, and then he turns to the occupation authorities again to get some documents, accordingly, he gets documents from Russia," continues Andrij Černjak.

"We understand that this document is fake, but it is important for Russia to do this in order to show the domestic market that the citizens of our great country are all Russians."

Russian propaganda is worthless. In fact, it's all ridiculous, because in last year's pseudo-referendum, 80-90 percent of citizens expressed their support for the alleged entry into Russia. That is, why are you having problems with your passport, if you have such a high level of support? This question is quite rhetorical. That's why the methods are coercive, absolutely barbaric, terroristic," states the National Opposition.

 

Pseudo-elections

 

There are many reasons for urgent passport issuance. This is a conditional census, a search for disloyal locals and an answer to demographic questions. But one of the main reasons is the so-called elections for the so-called local authorities that were held at the beginning of September. The best results, of course, were achieved by the pro-Kremlin party United Russia.

"Forgery is when there is a real democratic process, but some forces in their own interest try to change the result, influence the voters and so on. There is no case of falsification here – no democratic process. Here is a pure imitation of voting, elections, which is carried out with the help of administrative and information technologies. That is, it is simply a complete process from to. We don't know anything about the actual number of those who voted there, it wasn't even clear who they voted for there. That is, it is a pure imitation in general. Here we can only use the word "election" in quotation marks in this case, because it is not an election at all. It is the same technology that was used last year in the so-called referendums," says independent journalist Kostiantin Skorkin.

 

According to Russian legislation, international observers are not provided for in local elections. However, the Russian Federation has decided to invite foreign observers to the so-called "new regions", that is, to bring them, experts say.

"Russia paid them, Russia invited them, Russia provided, say, security conditions, living conditions and everything else. Consequently, Russian mass media have already announced that the elections were transparent and democratic. And they will say that when they return to their countries. And it is very important for the Russian Federation, from this informative aspect, because Russia is oriented to gain those territories as a result of this war. Because the plans are changing, unlike the first days of the war when they wanted all of Ukraine, now they want to get those territories, which they de facto control.

Putin still expects the conflict to enter a freezing phase. Force Ukraine through its Western partners, first of all, to sit down at the negotiating table, and then these pseudo-elections will be an argument for the Russian Federation to say that the population supports Russia, de facto or whatever, to say "according to the current reality" that these territories are but Russian, and this must be taken into account when making decisions at these negotiations. It seems to me that this is one of the most important points of Putin's plans for these elections - says Serhij Garmaš, editor-in-chief of the OstriV publication.

 

As for the actual turnout and the number of those who voted, history is silent, as they say. But judging by the experience of earlier so-called elections under occupation, Russia, in principle, got what it wanted, experts say.

"By the way, they showed that in reality everything is very bad with the issuing of passports, because at the polling stations it was allowed to participate in the elections with Ukrainian passports. That is, it was necessary to increase the turnout as much as possible, and therefore they were forced to allow citizens to vote only with Ukrainian passports. Legislation at the level of fiction and unnecessary evidence that these elections are a pure fiction, an imitation, a pure PR event for the occupying authorities," says Kostiantin Skorkin.

 

Mobilization

 

Despite the fact that the so-called elections are over, the issuance of passports continues and does not slow down. At first glance, the reason is that the Kremlin will most likely try to collect another mobilization reserve in the fall, experts say.

"By the way, that was also one of the obligations - those who received Russian passports were forced to immediately go to the military commissariat and register as conscripts. Therefore, the process will continue," says Serhij Garmaš.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) drew attention to the message of the Russian Telegram channel "VČK-OGPU", which is considered a source of insider information close to the special services of the Russian Federation. It states that after the so-called elections in Russia, "serious measures for the second wave of mobilization" began to be implemented. But ISW experts point out that the described plans are not new, and they do not yet say what Putin has finally decided on the matter.  

"They see who has a passport, they see the number of people and then they can work with those people. And if someone has received a passport, he can officially, as a Russian citizen, be mobilized into the ranks of the Russian armed forces and sent to the combat zone," says Andrij Černjak.

The message also states that they want to mobilize up to 175,000 reservists in the Russian Federation, while at the same time conducting a "contractual mobilization" to recruit another 130,000. The Ukrainian General Staff recently heard a figure of 400,000 to 700,000 being mobilized, and according to the head of the Ukrainian intelligence service Kirill Budanov, 20,000 people are selected there every month. As for the occupied territories, according to Artem Lisohor, the head of Lugansk OVA, "mobilization procedures" have already started there.

"For now, we must clearly understand that first of all, people who worked in factories, hospitals, and mines were mobilized. And they are already, in fact, those who went there to combat units, they are already running out, and Russia needs to recruit someone. That is why men are already mobilizing, as they say, where they are received: both at checkpoints, and in social services, and when issuing passports, during the registration of some property, during re-registration. That's why almost everywhere they are mobilizing men, those who are still left," says Artem Lisohor, head of the Lugansk OVA.

The illusion of real elections, an imitation of democracy and the right to vote. All this "performance" of Russia is needed only to prove, although it is not clear to whom, its alleged "legitimacy" and the support of the Ukrainian people in the conquered territories. But on the other hand, Russia is just once again proving that it is alone - no one will support it. The only question is at what price does she do it, if the price is determined by human life.