On October 17, 2017, the first recruits from Crimea, North Ossetia, Chechnya and Karachay-Cherkessia were assembled from the military commissariats located in the Southern Military District (SMD)*.
In the autumn and winter of this year, more than 22,000 citizens will be called up for military service from all the constituent subjects of the Russian Federation located in the Southern Military District. More than 20,000 new recruits will be sent to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, of which more than 13,000 will be deployed to military units in the Southern Military District.
The Crimean Human Rights Group writes:
Russia has violated the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in time of war by drafting Crimeans to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
The Crimean Human Rights Group confirms that the conscription of Crimean citizens into the Russian army grossly violates the norms of international humanitarian law.
By conscripting citizens of occupied Crimea into the ranks of the Russian occupation army and continuing to recruit Crimean citizens to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Russia intentionally violates Article 51 of the Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), and by transporting conscripted citizens of Ukraine from occupied Crimea to the territory of the Russian Federation, Russia intentionally violates Article 49 of this Convention.
The Crimean Human Rights Group requests that Crimeans transmit all materials (subpoenas, photos and videos) relative to Russia’s illegal conscription of Crimean citizens to the following e-mail: [email protected]. These materials will be treated confidentially, and will help us in our work to end the draft in Crimea.
