Putin sends minorities to the front
Created: 09/26/2022, 11:51 am
By: Katja Thorwarth
Kremlin boss Putin needs soldiers for his war in Ukraine.
Many of the drafted men are said to belong to ethnic minorities.
Moscow – Since Vladimir Putin announced partial mobilization because of the war of aggression against Ukraine on September 21, protests have been taking place in Russia against the measure.
At the same time, reports of the mass escape of able-bodied men are piling up.
The Kremlin is already responding, apparently planning to close its borders to men of mobilization age.
As the independent Russian news
site Meduza
reports, this should happen after the end of the mock referendums on Tuesday evening (September 27).
The men concerned are said to need permission from the military to leave Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has commented on Russia's partial mobilization.
Accordingly, the action hit ethnic minorities particularly hard.
"We see that people, especially in Dagestan, have started fighting for their lives," Zelenskyj said in his video speech on Monday night.
He was referring to violent protests that had broken out hours earlier in the Muslim-dominated Russian republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus.
Ethnic minorities should increasingly go to the front in the Ukraine war
In a village from which 110 men were to be conscripted for the Ukraine war, police even fired warning shots at demonstrators on Sunday.
"I emphasize once again: there is no way out," said Zelenskyj.
"Escape.
Or go into Ukrainian captivity at the first opportunity.”
Putin's partial mobilization often affects minorities.
© IMAGO/Kirill Kukhmar
Dagestan is one of the regions of Russia from which, according to observers, a particularly large number of men are conscripted.
Activists complain that members of ethnic minorities are particularly hard hit by the mobilization and therefore sometimes even speak of "ethnic cleansing".
Anti-mobilization protests are also particularly large in the Yakutia and Buryatia regions of Siberia.
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Panic in Russia over Putin's partial mobilization in the Ukraine war
In view of the recent defeats of his army, Kremlin chief Putin ordered last Wednesday that reservists should now also be committed to fighting in Ukraine.
Since then, many Russians have panicked.
(ktho/dpa)