Russia 'is rounding up HOMELESS people as part of its mobilisation'
Russia ‘is rounding up HOMELESS people as part of its military mobilisation’: Men ‘are grabbed while queueing up for food and forced onto buses’
- Witnesses have described homeless men being loaded onto buses in Moscow
- They are then taken to military enlistment offices and made to sign up to fight
- Moscow recruitment officers also said to be targeting hotels for workers
- This comes weeks after Putin declared a ‘partial’ mobilisation
Russia is rounding up homeless people and sending them to the front lines of Ukraine as part of Vladimir Putin’s military mobilisation, according to local reports.
Security officers in Moscow have been taking men from charity food banks and hostels where migrant workers live, Russian news outlet Mediazona said.
This comes weeks after Putin declared a ‘partial’ mobilisation in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of his ailing war effort after a series of embarrassing setbacks.
Russia is rounding up homeless people and sending them to the front lines of Ukraine as park of Vladimir Putin’s military mobilisation, according to local reports. Pictured: Russian recruits fire rifles in the Rostov-on-Don region in southern Russia, Tuesday, October 4, 2022
The Russian independent publication spoke to Food Not Bombs, a charity group working in the Russian capital, and heard how it had seen dozens of homeless men taken off the street to military enlistment offices in recent weeks.
A Food Not Bombs representative told Mediazona: ‘A 60-year-old man was taken away, then he was released and came back.
‘He told me that they were taken to the military commissariat, where many people who had been called up for war were standing in line. He was told that he didn’t fit the age criteria and that they only take men up to 45 years old.’
The representative said while police ‘used a little force’, they exerted pressure in other ways – suggesting there would be ‘punishment’ for not signing up.
Other witnesses have shared similar stories.
‘The police come here without anyone asking. They see a queue of people waiting for food, and then they grab them by the scruff of the neck, against their will,’ the head of the Salvation Hangar, a Christian Orthodox homeless charity, told the outlet.
He said the homeless men are loaded onto buses and taken to military enlistment offices. More than 50 people were later released, he said, while those who did not have passports or documentation were taken to a police station.
In September, Putin declared a ‘partial’ mobilisation in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of his ailing war effort after a series of embarrassing setbacks. Pictured: Russian recruits gather to take a train at a railway station in Prudboi, Volgograd region of Russia, September 29
Russian conscripted man says goodbye to relatives at a recruiting office during Russia’s partial military mobilisation in Moscow, Russia, 12 October. Moscow is aiming to recruit 300,000
Activists at the Food Not Bombs charity recorded an interview with a homeless man who was rejected by the military because of his age.
‘There were only 20-25 people on the bus, and it arrived empty. There were two district police officers and two buyers – well, employees of the recruiting station, which has now opened in the Museum of Moscow in the courtyard.
‘They organised this recruiting station there,’ he told the outlet.
Mediazona also reported that recruitment officers had visited hostels that are known to be accommodation for migrant workers, as well as couriers and taxi drivers, among other low-paid workers.
They were trying to recruit men to join Putin’s armies from there as well.
One guest staying at the Travel Inn hostel in Moscow told the Russian publication that on October 8, police surrounded the building and blocked exits.
They then scoured it floor-by-floor searching the rooms for people eligible to join the military, and asking for guests’ documents.
Russian recruits gather inside a military recruitment center of Bataysk, Rostov-on-Don region, south of Russia, Monday, Sept. 26, 2022
Russian conscripted man says goodbye to relatives at a recruiting office during Russia’s partial military mobilisation in Moscow, October 12
‘Those who were served draft papers were ordered to come with their things the next day at 9:00 and their passports were confiscated. Those who weren’t handed draft papers were released, ‘ the guest told Mediazona.
The guest said the same thing happened the following day.
In August, the Ukrainian army announced its counteroffensive in the south and east, and since then has pushed Putin’s forces back – seeing huge gains.
After regaining almost full control of the northeastern region of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian forces recently claimed more gains on the eastern and southern fronts.
Faced with mounting setbacks since September, Putin announced the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists to join the fighting in Ukraine.
Moscow is said to be aiming to recruit 300,000 men to join the fight.
Hundreds of thousands of Russian men had fled the country in an attempt to escape being called up to the front lines.
Meanwhile, stories from men who heeded the call have painted a grim picture of the conditions in Russian ranks, having been handed rusty weapons and being told they must purchase their own equipment, right down to their military boots.
Russian conscripted man says goodbye to relatives at a recruiting office during Russia’s partial military mobilisation in Moscow, October 12
Flame and smoke rise from the Crimean Bridge connecting Russian mainland and the Crimean peninsula over the Kerch Strait, in Kerch, Crimea, October 8, 2022
Several reports have said that the mobilisation has targeted men from Russia’s poorer regions, as well as men from ethnic minorities.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said Wednesday it reclaimed more territory from Russia in the south, while welcoming the delivery of Western air defence systems that Kyiv said would usher in a ‘new era’ after mass strikes from Moscow.
Russia for two days pummelled Ukraine with missiles, damaging energy facilities nationwide, in attacks that President Vladimir Putin said were retaliation for a deadly explosion at the Crimea bridge.
Russia’s FSB security service said Wednesday it detained eight suspects over the blast that ripped through the road and rail bridge connecting Crimea to Russia.
But it also claimed to have foiled two more attacks that Ukrainian special services allegedly planned to carry out on Russian territory.
Putin has vowed a ‘severe’ response to any further attack on Russia and what Moscow considers to be its territory, including the Crimea peninsula that it annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied it attacked the bridge, a vital transport link but also a matter of pride for Putin who personally inaugurated the structure in 2018.
Despite warnings from the Kremlin, Kyiv has vowed to retake the peninsula as well as four regions in Ukraine’s east and south that Moscow says are now part of Russia.
Kyiv said Wednesday that it had retaken five more settlements in the southern region of Kherson – one of the four territories Moscow said it annexed in late September – in the latest setback for Russia’s campaign.
Source: Read Full Article