A Russian conscription officer has been shot dead in the town of Ust-Ilimsk, in Siberia's Irkutsk region, as part of the partial recruitment process currently underway in the country by order of President Vladimir Putin, the Guardian reported.

The newspaper reported that young people who were brought in to be recruited to participate in the Ukrainian war took advantage of the shooting incident and fled the hall.

It quoted Igor Kobezhev - the governor of the Irkutsk region - as saying on social media that the officer in charge of the recruitment office was in a critical condition in the hospital, and the doctors made great efforts to save his life, while a woman - inside the ambulance that transported him - indicated that he had died.

Mobilized man killed a drafting office commander in Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk region, Russia.

Alexandr Yeliseev, the commander, was shot four times almost point blank.

The murderer is Ruslan Zinin, born in 1997, "partially mobilized".

He decided jail is better than death in Ukraine.

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— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 26, 2022

Kobesev vowed to punish the arrested shooter, and said, "I am ashamed that such a thing happened at this time, we must - contrary to what happened - be united, we must not fight each other, we must unite against external threats."

The newspaper reported that an eyewitness confirmed to a local agency that the recruiting officer was giving an impassioned speech in which he tried to encourage young recruits to go to fight in Ukraine, when the man surprised him by shooting.

Another witness confirmed that the shooter said, "No one is going to fight, now we will all go home."

And Russian tweeters reported that the accused was born in 1997, and decided that going to prison was better for him than going to fight in Ukraine.


timing

According to the newspaper, this remarkable event came at a time when the partial recruitment decision sparked a rejection among large groups of Russians;

As a result, many were forced to travel outside the country, while others expressed their refusal to fight in Ukraine.

Protests also continued in Russian-controlled Dagestan, with officers firing into the air to disperse crowds angry at conscription.

In the city of Ryazan, a man set his clothes on fire while shouting that he did not want to participate in the Russian war on Ukraine, local media reported.

The Guardian explained that there is a general feeling of rising tension across Russia, and videos circulating on social media showed angry confrontations, especially at recruitment centers.


According to the newspaper, the Kremlin sought to appease the Russians and said it had neither closed the borders nor imposed martial law.

President Vladimir Putin issued a decree granting state citizenship to foreigners who volunteer to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, while imposing severe penalties on any soldier who refuses to join the war or flee from the field.

The Russian president has signed amendments that stipulate a prison sentence of up to 10 years for soldiers who desert or refuse to fight during the mobilization period "without permission" or disobey orders, and punish those who engage in looting with imprisonment for up to 15 years.