This was reported by Novaya Gazeta Europe with reference to the “Movement of Conscientious Objectors”. According to the organization, 27-year-old Petrozavodsk resident Nikita Sergeev has already been taken to military unit No. 61424, and in the morning he was supposed to be sent to the front.
Last week, Sergeev came to the military enlistment office in Petrozavodsk for a medical commission for employment as a repairman. He has a retinal burn, because of which he can barely see; doctors assigned him fitness category “D” and made the corresponding entry in his military ID.
After the medical commission, according to these reports, the man was not allowed to leave the enlistment office. A soldier said that he would be sent to Blagoveshchensk and that there they would “find a use even for people with category ‘D’”, after which Sergeev was forcibly put into a car and taken through Moscow to Blagoveshchensk.
There, his military ID was taken away and he was sent for a repeat medical examination. According to DSO, two soldiers led Sergeev into the doctor’s office and ordered him to say that he was healthy; the ophthalmologist did not examine him, and the man himself claims that he saw other conscripts in a similar situation being beaten.
After all the procedures, Sergeev, according to the organization, was forced to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and taken to military unit No. 61424. DSO promised to help Sergeev and reminded that people with category “D” are by definition unable to perform military service.
As background, human rights defenders note that Vladimir Putin supported the proposal of war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny to involve citizens with category “D” in tasks to destroy drones inside Russia. In the view of human rights defenders, such an initiative creates a risk of forcing people who have been deemed completely unfit for military service to take part in the war.
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