Russian proxies in occupied Kherson Oblast announce forced conscription of Ukrainians
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Ukrainian men in the Russian-occupied part of Kherson Oblast will be subject to conscription into the Russian army from now until the end of the year, according to Volodymyr Saldo, Russia's proxy leader in the occupied region.
Men aged 18 to 30 will be subject to conscription for a period of 12 months.
Russia carried out a similar round of forced conscription in fall of 2023, drafting Ukrainians in the illegally occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts along with Russian citizens.
The conscription round began on Oct. 1 and will last until Dec. 31, 2024, Saldo said. Conscripts from occupied Kherson Oblast will be called to serve in Russia's Southern Military District, which includes illegally annexed Ukrainian territories.
New conscripts will not be sent to front-line areas or directly involved in the full-scale invasion, Saldo claimed.
In response to Saldo's announcement, Yurii Sobolevsky, deputy head of Kherson Oblast Council, advised Ukrainians living under occupation to flee to E.U. countries or other safe regions.
"It was clear that sooner or later the enemy would use our human resources to make our people participate in this war," Soboloevsky said in a comment to Suspilne.
Forced conscription under occupation constitutes a war crime under international law.
Russia has reportedly conscripted tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied parts of Ukraine to fight against their own country since the start of the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Many of them are believed to have been killed in action, as Moscow reportedly uses these people as cannon fodder to expose Ukrainian artillery positions and to cover units recruited inside Russia.
