Russian asylum seekers expelled from US end up on Ukraine front
www.lemonde.fr
Amid surging anti-migrant sentiment in the US and growing ties between Moscow and Washington, 64 Russians were deported from Arizona. Upon arrival in Moscow, the men soon received military draft notices.

Deported from the United States and then immediately dispatched to the front lines by Russia. Such was the fate of several Russian nationals who, after being detained and put on a plane in Arizona on Monday, December 8, eventually landed in Moscow on Tuesday, December 9, after a stopover in Cairo.

According to the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, 64 Russian passengers were on board. The authorities have provided no information about their current status. However, several of them received military draft notices as soon as they arrived, the first step toward likely deployment to the front in Ukraine. The information was confirmed by the group Russian America for Democracy in Russia (RADR), an advocacy group established in the US by opponents to the Kremlin.

The only official statement from Moscow came after the plane landed: The Office of the Prosecutor General announced the arrest of Zair Saimullin, age 69, who was charged with fraud and whose extradition from the US had been requested by Russia. According to RADR, he was likely on board the flight from Cairo.

    • slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      6 days ago

      Now I’m curious as how Ukraine handles asylum seekers from Russia. Do they consider them too much of a risk to draft them? I mean, obviously going from one country at war to another doesn’t solve many of the issues, but I’m curious as to how this would affect their risk of bbeing drafted.

        • slevinkelevra@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          That’s a good point, as having russian-only units sorts out some of the issues I guess. That wasn’t really ehat I was thinking about though. I get that there are lots of russians opposing the government strongly enough to be willing to fight against them. I was wondering about military age draft dodgers, but I guess they have civilian service for any people unwilling to fight.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
    10·
    6 days ago

    They don’t seem like they’d make the most motivated soldiers. I doubt I’d want to be deployed to a war zone with one of these guys next to me.

    • vas@lemmy.mlEnglish
      5·
      6 days ago

      If you know the details of this war, you know that the Russian military is not driven by “motivation”. Instead, it’s beatings, threats of death, humiliation etc.