Russia has sent around 10,000 immigrants to front in Ukraine: Report

Russia has deployed roughly 10,000 immigrants who recently received citizenship to the front in Ukraine after ramping up efforts to enforce military registration among its newest nationals.
 

Authorities “have already caught more than 30,000” new Russian citizens who had avoided registering with the military, Russia’s chief investigator Alexander Bastrykin said Thursday at a legal conference in St. Petersburg, according to the Interfax news service. 

“About 10,000 of them have already been sent to the special military operation zone,” Bastrykin said, using a phrase common among Russian officials to describe the war. 

He also said the deployed were sent to serve in rear units that build fortifications. 

 

Russian authorities have sought to avoid a second wave of unpopular mobilization after the call-up of 300,000 Russians in September 2022 provoked panic and an exodus from the country. Authorities instead have tried to lure people into the armed forces with lucrative contracts. Annually conscripted servicemen also aren’t currently officially sent to the war zone.