How Russia recruits troops in occupied Ukrainian territories

This spring marks the highest rate of military conscription that Russia has seen in 14 years. In late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree ordering 160,000 men aged 18 to 30 to be called up. Their year of service began on April 10.

Russia's Defense Ministry claims that the latest round of conscription, which takes place biannually in spring and autumn, has nothing to do with the war against Ukraine. But men in the Russian-occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are also being drafted.

According to Ukraine's Eastern Human Rights Group (EHRG), at least 300 people from the occupied territories were conscripted into the Russian army in fall 2024, including around 200 from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and 100 from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Few options in occupied territories

"If I'm forcibly mobilized, I'll shoot myself," says Oleksii (name changed). The 21-year-old lives in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia, where he wants to stay with his family. "I would have to start my life all over again," he says.

Although Oleksii now has a Russian passport, he has so far been spared conscription. But since last fall, the Russian occupation authorities have been requiring men to enlist in the military, he says.

Without Russian ID, it is almost impossible to get a job or study at a university, Oleksii explains. While he is not aware of any cases of forced conscription for military service, he says that pro-Russian men have volunteered to sign contracts with the Russian army.

Another man, a 28-year-old resident of an occupied village in the Luhansk region, describes a similar situation. He has not yet accepted a Russian passport and the occupation authorities are making life difficult for people like him, he says. SIM cards cannot be purchased without a Russian ID, for example, as telecommunications are under Russian control, as human rights activists have confirmed.

Pressure to fulfill Russia's mobilization plan

Those who join the Russian military are first sent to Russia for training, usually in the southern Rostov and Krasnodar regions, but also near St. Petersburg or Moscow. Some are sent to the illegally annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

According to Pavlo Lysianskyi, a Ukrainian human rights activist and head of the Institute for Strategic Research and Security, the Russian army has not set up its own barracks in the occupied territories for security reasons.

"After their training, many conscripts are sent to the front upon signing a contract with the Russian army," Lysianskyi says. This decision is sometimes voluntary, but often made under duress due to a lack of alternatives, he adds.

Only a few conscripts from the occupied territories avoid being sent to the front, often by getting stationed near St. Petersburg or Moscow through connections and bribery. According to Lysianskyi, only 15 men managed this last year.

The reason is that the Russian military is under pressure to fulfil its mobilization plan. "They are trying to compensate for the lack of regular soldiers with men who have already completed their military service," he says.

Sketchy circumstances

Such a case was described in a Telegram channel that focuses on mobilization in the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic." According to the account, a man from the occupied part of the Donetsk was sent to the Krasnodar region for military service and told that he would be deployed to the front at the end of his training. "The commanders said that everything had already been signed for him," the channel's author Mikhail (name changed) told DW.

The man turned to the Russian military prosecutor's office for help but his fate is unknown, Mikhail says.

Those who have accepted a Russian passport and are over 18 are not the only ones subject to compulsory military service. Anyone who completed their military service in the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" prior to February 2022 (before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine) is also required to serve.

According to Mikhail, this also includes members of the separatist "people's militias" in the occupied regions that existed from 2014 to 2022, who have been sent to Russia for military service. In addition, men of conscription age in those areas are being summoned to the conscription office to register for their military service. "But I can't say what the extent of this is," he says.

Punishment for conscientious objectors

It is practically impossible to refuse service in the Russian army, says Olha Skrypnyk, head of Ukraine's Crimean Human Rights Group. Russia began illegally conscripting men in 2015 — first in annexed Crimea, then in other occupied areas of Ukraine, she says. "Before the full-scale Russian invasion, around 6,000 people were conscripted in Crimea every year. We currently have no figures, but they have probably increased," Skrypnyk adds.

Refusing to serve in Russia can result in a prison sentence of up to two years. According to human rights organizations, at least 583 criminal proceedings have been opened in Crimea alone.

However, according to the Russian-language online news magazine Verstka, which is critical of the Kremlin, none of those affected received a prison sentence in the first half of 2024: Three were sentenced to probation and the others received fines.

Forced conscription is a war crime

However, these punishments would not exempt anyone from serving in the Russian army, says Skrypnyk, emphasizing that conscription into the military in the occupied territories violates international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.

Russia has been forcibly conscripting Ukrainians living in the occupied territories into the army since 2022 and often abuses them as "human shields," she says. "We know of cases where drafted, unarmed men were put in front of the regular army, making them the first to be attacked. This was practiced en masse in 2022."

According to the Crimean Human Rights Group, Russia deployed numerous recruits from annexed Crimea during its invasion of Ukraine. Skrypnyk says that at least 1,873 members of Russian units in Crimea have fallen since 2022, while 116 Crimean residents have been taken prisoner by the Ukrainian armed forces.