Ukraine condemns Russia's forced conscription of citizens in occupied territories

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.

It is noted that by this decision, Russia “grossly violates its international legal obligations, in particular under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War”.

Thus, the occupying power is prohibited from forcing temporarily occupied territories residents to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces, as well as from exerting pressure and propaganda in favor of voluntary enlistment.

The Ministry appealed to Ukrainian citizens who remain in the temporarily occupied territories and urged them to avoid mobilization by all means. Instead, civilians who will be forcibly enlisted in the Russian army should leave such units at the earliest opportunity and return to the territory of Ukraine or go to third countries.

In case conscripts are involved in the aggression against Ukraine, the Ministry calls on them to use the “I Want to Live” project and voluntarily surrender their weapons to the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

“It is time for Ukrainians who are citizens of the Russian Federation in the Kuban, Starodubsk, Northern and Eastern Slobozhanshchyna within the current Krasnodar Territory, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov regions of the Russian Federation to remember their ancestry, their roots and not to let them be tarnished by the crimes of the Kremlin regime,” the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

• On September 30, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the autumn conscription to the Russian army, which is to involve 133,000 people.