'It's a 100% mobilisation': day one of Russia's drive to build its armyhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/russia-mobilisation-ukraine-war-army-drive
Quote:
One woman in a small village in the Zakamensky region of Buryatia, in eastern Siberia, said she first felt something was amiss when the dogs began barking about midnight. In a community of 450 people, the village head was walking from house to house, seeking to hand out more than 20 draft notices.
"It's not a partial mobilisation, it's a 100% mobilisation," said Alexandra Garmazhapova, president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, an activist group that has reported on the draft in the region. In the past day, she said, she and her colleagues had received and identified more than 3,000 reports of povestka, or draft papers, being delivered in Buryatia within just 24 hours
One woman said a 52-year-old relative had been delivered a povestka
"'Don't you have five children?' they asked him. My husband laughed and said 'yes, five kids'. 'Well, OK, expect your draft papers,'" she said.
Video and anecdotal evidence from around Russia has shown large drafts taking place even in small towns, suggesting that the numbers could be far higher.[than 300,000]
In Neryungri, the second largest town in Sakha, also known as Yakutia, video footage appeared to show dozens of men being gathered at the Gornyak football stadium and loaded onto buses bound for recruitment centres, as family members bid tearful farewells. Many of the men appeared to be in their 30s and 40s.
In Moscow, police officers reportedly began giving draft notices to those they detained at the protest.
Among them was Artem Krieger, a young reporter for the Sota Vision news outlet, who was detained despite being there to cover the protests.
"All the men, absolutely everyone, was given a draft notice," said Krieger
The breadth of the mobilisation across Russia is staggering. One video showed more than 100 potential draftees lined up behind an An-12 plane at an airport in Khurba in the far-eastern Khabarovsk region.
Obviously most of us do not think much of these conscripts, but the scope is staggering. They may very well conscript well over 300,000 men.
And yes while many will desert, mutiny, riot, surrender etc, many will take orders and fight with whatever weapons they have, which will result in Ukrainian casualties.
