Russian youths dread being sent to 'special operation' in annual conscription rounds
Today marks an annual spring conscription in Russia, which aims to round up more than 100,000 men for a one-year tour of military duty.
As Moscow's forces bog down in Ukraine, many young Russians of draft age are increasingly jittery about the prospect of being sent into combat, the Associated Press reports.
All Russian men aged 18-27 must serve one year in the military, but a large share avoid the draft for health reasons or deferments granted to university students.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu pledged this week that the new recruits won't be sent to front lines or “hot spots.”
“I don't trust them when they say they won't send conscripts into combat. They lie all the time,” said Vladislav, a 22-year-old. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing reprisals.
Even though President Vladimir Putin and his officials say that conscripts aren’t involved in what Russian authorities call “the special military operation in Ukraine,” many appeared to have been taken prisoner during its initial days. Videos emerged from Ukraine of captured Russians, some being shown calling their parents, and were put on social media.
The mother of one of the prisoners said she recognized her 20-year-old draftee son in a video even though he was shown blindfolded.
“I recognized him by his lips, by his chin. You know, I would have recognized him by his fingers,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Lyubov, for security reasons. "I breastfed him. I raised him.”
The Defence Ministry was forced to walk back its statements and acknowledge that some conscripts were sent to Ukraine “by mistake” and were taken prisoner while serving with a supply unit away from the front.
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