Russian authorities on Sunday vowed to fix mistakes in their troop call-up for Ukraine, after addressing some public outrage over students, the elderly or sick being mistakenly ordered to report for duty.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization on Wednesday, he said only those with “relevant” skills or military experience would be affected.
But many have expressed outrage after seeing – sometimes absurdly – cases in which authorities have summoned disabled people.
Authorities in southwest Russia’s Volgograd region sent a 63-year-old diabetic ex-military worker to a training camp despite poor health and cerebral problems.
The 63-year-old came home on Friday evening, according to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti.
In the same region, 58-year-old headmaster Alexander Faltin, despite the lack of military experience, received a draft order.
His daughter posted a video on social media that went viral.
According to the RIA, he was allowed to go home after his documents were checked.
– A rare recording –
Upper House Speaker Valentina Matviyenko urged all governors – who oversee mobilization campaigns – to avoid mistakes in a rare admission on Sunday.
“Incorrect cases of mobilization … provoke violent reactions in society, and rightly so,” Matviyenko said in a statement on Telegram.
“Some assume that getting their report (to their managers) in quickly is more important than getting this important job done correctly,” she added.
“This is unacceptable … Make sure that the partial mobilization is carried out fully and fully according to the criteria. And without a single mistake!” She ordered.
North-Western Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko urged local district heads to “take personal control of residents’ appeals and handle each individual case,” according to a statement on his government’s website on Sunday.
The governor of the Vladimir region Vladimir Avdeev already said on Saturday that “everyone who was accidentally mobilized will return home”.
The errors are painted as individual cases.
But the mere fact that the Russian authorities are speaking out suggests concern about the level of outrage felt by sections of the population.
– “Undermining Trust” –
This new example is Russia’s latest logistical problem to be revealed since the Ukraine offensive began in February.
Russia on Saturday announced the replacement of its top-ranking general in charge of logistics amid this mobilization campaign.
Valeriy Fadeev, head of the Kremlin’s Human Rights Council, on Saturday called on Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to “resolve problems urgently” so as not to “undermine people’s trust.”
He mentioned several undesirable developments, including the recruitment of 70 fathers of large families in the Far Eastern region of Buryatia and nurses and midwives with no military skills.
Fadeev said these recruits were drafted “under threat of criminal prosecution.”
Fadeev also criticized that “at 2 a.m. they were handing out summonses like they all thought we were draft evaders.”
Several students told AFP they had received draft papers despite Russian authorities promising to exclude them from the recruitment campaign.
On Saturday, Putin signed a decree confirming that students at secondary professional and higher education institutions would be exempted from mobilization.
Detained anti-mobilization protesters said police gave them draft papers in custody – and ordered them to get involved in the very efforts they denounced.
But the Kremlin defended the procedure on Thursday, saying “it’s not against the law”.