At least six newly mobilized Russian soldiers have died since the start of the country’s “partial” mobilization for the war in Ukraine less than two weeks ago, human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said.
Three of the soldiers died at an army training center in the Sverdlovsk region, local news outlet EAN reported Monday.
“I confirm that three people have died,” federal lawmaker Maxim Ivanov told EAN. “One of the mobilized men died from a heart attack and another committed suicide. The third one was discharged and sent home, where he died from cirrhosis of the liver.”
The ASTRA Telegram channel identified the man who reportedly committed suicide as a 46-year-old resident of the neighboring Kurgan region. Local authorities have opened an investigation.
The Sverdlovsk region’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Merzlyakova confirmed the deaths of two soldiers, adding that both men had been called up from the Kurgan region. She did not specify their cause of death.
In the Far East port of Vladivostok, Sergei Fedoseenko, 39, died from a heart attack after he was detained at a local enlistment office.
Another recruit, identified as Boris Shavaev from the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, died at a military base, media reported.
In Siberia’s Tyumen region, local media reported that a dead soldier was found at an enlistment office.
A number of Russian regions have reported taking measures to improve their regions’ draft efforts after President Vladimir Putin last week reprimanded officials for “mistakes” in carrying out his “partial” mobilization.
An enlistment officer in the Khabarovsk region was suspended and transferred after thousands of people there were mistakenly called up to fight in Ukraine, officials said Monday.
In Russia’s East Siberian region of Yakutia, around 300 men were sent back home after being wrongfully called up, according to a local official cited by state-run news agency TASS.
Russia’s authorities ordered the so-called partial mobilization of troops to fight in Ukraine, adding that Russia would call up 300,000 people with “relevant” skills or military experience.
