According to the report published by Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, Russians continue their efforts to mobilise Ukrainian civilians living in the temporarily occupied regions of Southern Ukraine – a conduct which constitutes a war crime, according to international law experts. Russians try to disguise this as a ‘volunteer initiative’. Initially, Russians sought to establish a system where life on the temporarily occupied territories without obtaining a Russian passport was practically and legally impossible, preventing Ukrainian citizens from accessing various state and emergency services, social assistance, or even getting a job. Ukrainian passport holders continue to be threatened by the Russian occupation authorities and are subject to constant security checks.
Once Russians formed the so-called ‘military conscription offices’ in Ukraine’s southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, men of a conscription age who obtained Russian passports were immediately handed military summons. In these so-called ‘military conscription offices’, people are offered to sign a contract with the Russian Armed Forces. Ukraine’s National Resistance Center notes that this practice of ‘covert mobilisation’ is mostly widespread in villages; however, it is likely that Russians will also try to expand their conscription efforts to towns and bigger cities in the occupied territories.
Earlier, the National Resistance Centre reported that Russians were attempting to recruit people from the prisons located in the temporarily occupied territories in the east of Ukraine; they particularly targeted people whom the Ukrainian courts sentenced before the occupation and establishment of Russian-governed ‘republics’. According to the National Resistance Centre’s local sources, the illegal Russian occupational administration of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions ordered local collaborators to provide lists of prisoners who were convicted by the Ukrainian authorities and have been serving their sentences since 2014 or earlier. Russians have already started recruiting these prisoners into the ranks of the Russian occupational forces, using the prisoners’ resentment towards Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. If prisoners refuse to serve, they are threatened with violence by prison authorities.
On 8 November, Liudmyla Korotkyh, manager at the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre (CTRC), told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne that illegal mobilisation in Crimea also continues. Since September 2023, at least 3,000 Crimean residents have been forcibly mobilised. Mobilisation on the temporarily occupied Crimea has been ongoing for over a year now, since September 2022. Initially, Russian occupation forces claimed that ‘mobilisation’ was partial; now, however, it has expanded. According to the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG), nearly 60,000 summonses were issued to Crimean residents since the beginning of mobilisation, but the initial Russian conscription plan was not fulfilled. According to Liudmyla Korotkyh, Russians tried to conceal the mobilisation under the guise of regular conscription and later increased the conscription age, which may indicate that the occupation forces continue to struggle with personnel.
Crimean residents try to avoid receiving conscription notices, but Russians issue them en masse in public places. Liudmyla Korotkyh also mentioned that occupation authorities issue notices in places such as markets, mosques, and places where people tend to gather, predominantly targeting Crimean Tatars or people whom Russian occupation forces refer to as ‘non-Slavic’.
