Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Thousands of Russian volunteers who joined the forces of the Donetsk and Luhansk 'People's Republics' thave found themselves on the wanted list for desertion, due to bureaucratic errors by the Russian Ministry of Defence after Russia annexed the DPR and LPR in 2022. ⬇️

2/ The "Direct action⚡Z" Telegram channel reports on the plight now facing many ex-DPR/LPR volunteers, including some entire units still fighting on the front, following the decision of the Russian MOD to incorporate the DPR/LPR People's Militias into the Russian Armed Forces.

3/ "Thousands of Russian volunteers who left for the Donbass in 2022 were denounced in the People's Republics as having left their units without permission. Criminal cases are opened against them, they are put on the wanted list.

4/ "The "deserters" have been fighting at the front for years, dying and losing their health, but for the state they are only defendants in criminal cases and prosecutor's inspections."

5/ The channel explains the background: "Even before the People’s Republics joined Russia, volunteers from the “mainland” fought in the ranks of the People’s Militia.

6/ "Their legal status was questionable; often they were not even properly registered in their units and did not receive the necessary allowances. But people came for ideological reasons, so they tolerated such twists and turns of bureaucracy.

7/ On 1 January 2023, the People's Militias became part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and Russian volunteers were retroactively registered as ... mobilised. Apparently, everyone who had ever fought in the People's Militias was ‘mobilised’.

8/ "The ‘mobilisation’ was carried out by the army corps of the DNR and LPR People's Militias, which is absurd and illegal in itself, as mobilisation orders are drawn up by military registration and enlistment offices at the place of registration.

9/ "In some cases, people were registered as contract soldiers, but without signing a contract with the RF Ministry of Defense and taking an oath."

10/ As a result, the channel says, "people who had been fighting for a long time in other units, who had gone home after serious injuries or at the end of their service, suddenly found out that the investigative bodies of the People's Republics had opened …

11/ … criminal cases against them for leaving their unit without permission.

A soldier without an eye, with one hand that doesn’t work, a soldier with shrapnel in his head – all of them have complaints from the authorities.

12/ "A soldier who has served the specified period of time, resigned from his unit and is already in civilian life is still registered as mobilised in full contradiction with the current legislation.

13/ "Those who are unable to mount a competent defence soon receive suspended sentences and end up as stormtroopers – along with other shtrafniks [punished soldiers]. Some manage to organise a legal defence and the cases against them are closed for lack of evidence of a crime."

14/ Direct action⚡Z notes that many of the accused volunteers are still serving in the Russian armed forces or the Redut mercenary force, despite simultaneously facing prosecution for desertion from the same.

15/ "We also know about an entire unit that, together with its commander, was registered as deserters. Meanwhile, the unit is successfully fighting, holding its part of the front near Chasiv Yar".

16/ The channel describes the situation as "a monstrous absurdity and arbitrariness, the only purpose of which is to create the appearance of legal grounds for the indefinite retention of volunteers who originally went for a limited period of service."

17/ It calls on "Russian society: humanitarian workers, military officers, public opinion leaders to speak out publicly about Problem-500 and, together with us, try to influence the situation in order to close this issue immediately for all the People’s Militia volunteers." /end

Source:
t.me/adirect/21410