(Moscow) Russia said Thursday that around 10,000 naturalized Russian foreign nationals had been sent to the front in Ukraine and acknowledged that others had preferred to leave its territory for fear of being mobilized.
Russia has been repeatedly accused of pressuring nationals of Central Asian countries living on its soil to join the army and several of these former Soviet republics have warned their citizens against the risk to be enlisted.
Alexander Bastrikin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, a powerful investigative body, stressed that authorities were tracking naturalized people who had not registered with the military, as they were supposed to do.
“We caught more than 30,000 [people] who received [Russian] citizenship, but did not want to register for military service, we put them on the list,” he told the during a conference, referring to the database bringing together the names of people likely to be enrolled.
“Already, some 10,000 have been sent to the zone of the special military operation,” he confided, using the euphemism imposed by the Russian state for the assault on the ‘Ukraine.
Faced with labor shortages due to decades of demographic crisis, this country has facilitated access to nationality to attract migrants.
But Russian citizenship requires its male holders to register with the army and serve under the flags if they are called up.
Mr. Bastrikine acknowledged that some workers had started “slowly to leave” due to the increase in inspections. He did not quantify this phenomenon.
In addition, police raids on workplaces and migrant homes increased after the attack, claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, at Crocus City Hall, which left more than 140 dead in March, near Moscow. . The alleged attackers were nationals of Tajikistan.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was confident that the new French government that will emerge from the legislative elections would maintain its support for Ukraine in the face of Russia, in an exclusive comment made to AFP on Thursday.
These comments come as elections scheduled for June 30 and July 7 in France could bring to power the far-right National Rally (RN) party, regularly criticized for its proximity to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“We believe that the French will continue to support Ukraine, whatever the political situation,” Zelensky said in a written comment to AFP.
“Similarly, by the will of the French people, the next government will continue to fully support Ukraine both on the battlefield” and in its EU membership, he continued.
While congratulating France for its “unwavering solidarity” with his country from the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, Mr. Zelensky said he was hopeful that the new French government would maintain its independence from Russia. Russia and would remain faithful to European values.
At the end of the legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron, a supporter of Volodymyr Zelensky, risks finding himself cohabiting with a far-right prime minister who could review the extent of military aid provided to Kyiv.
After posing as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow at the start of the war and notably calling not to “humiliate” Russia, President Macron transformed himself into a key supporter of Ukraine in Europe, pushing for other States, in particular Germany, to strengthen their support.
Emmanuel Macron thus opened the debate in February on sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, refusing to exclude this option. This idea was freshly welcomed within the European powers, certain allies –– Czech Republic, Poland, Baltic States in particular – approved it.
The president of the RN Jordan Bardella, who could become the next French prime minister, is opposed to sending French troops to Ukraine as well as to the delivery of “long-range missiles” allowing the Ukrainian army to strike the Russian territory.
