Russian conscripts have been deployed to the border with Ukraine for more than a month now. This was stated by the Executive Secretary of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, Valentina Melnikova.
“The brigades are located in Belgorod, and in Bryansk, and in Voronezh, and there is no legal problem here since they are still on the territory of Russia. Relatives of the conscripts, who were transferred near Belgorod, contacted me, complaining that they were forced to do hard work, and that shelling was going on. But [by law] nothing can be done about it. Unless if conscripts are not fed, not watered, there are some grounds for complaints,†Melnikova said.
On September 16, the BBC Russian Service reported that they were going to send conscripts from the Taman division to the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine; Relatives of three soldiers told the publication about this.
According to Kholod, conscripts from the Kantemirovskaya division were transferred to the Belgorod region to the border with Ukraine back in July.
According to the BBC Russian Service, conscripts from the Taman division and from the 25th motorized rifle brigade, which is based in the city of Luga, Leningrad Region, will also be sent there.
- At the beginning of the war, President Vladimir Putin asserted that “only professional military personnel — officers and contractors — take part in this operation,†and “there are no conscripts.â€
- But relatives reported that conscripts were sent to the war zone, among other things. Later, the Ministry of Defense admitted: "several facts of the presence" of conscripts at the front. They were sent home.
- In April, the cruiser Moskva, attacked by a Ukrainian missile, sank in the Black Sea, on which there were also conscripted sailors. Later, the parents of the surviving on "Moscow" conscripts complained that their children were about to be sent back to the war zone.
