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Russia Secretly Drafts Ukrainians in Luhansk for War Against Ukraine, Ukrainian Official Confirms
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
The Russian command is continuing to secretly mobilize residents from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to replenish its units, directly contradicting its own official statements.
Vladyslav Voloshyn, the spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces, confirmed to Ukrinform on October 20 that the practice is ongoing.
He reported that one of the Russian Airborne Forces' landing units recently received approximately 50 new recruits, consisting primarily of residents from the occupied Luhansk region.
“Despite the assurances of the Russian high military-political leadership that residents of the temporarily occupied territories would not be involved in the Russian army, they are currently mobilizing men and sending them to the war against Ukraine, particularly to the southern directions, to Kherson region,” Voloshyn noted.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians forcibly conscripted into the Russian army are intentionally injuring themselves to evade being deployed in assault operations against Ukraine’s Defense Forces in the Kherson region.
According to ATESH partisan movement, one specific case involved a soldier—a resident of the temporarily occupied Kherson region who had been forcibly conscripted—deliberately injuring a fellow serviceman, who was also mobilized from occupied Ukrainian territory, at the end of June.
ATESH highlighted that Russian commanders resort to coercion, intimidation, and threats of violence to force residents of occupied regions to carry out combat orders. Despite this strict control, many Ukrainians are finding ways to avoid being sent directly to the front lines.
Earlier, it was reported that Russia is escalating its efforts to track potential conscripts, beginning with monitoring school-aged youth and progressing to the forcible drafting of men in the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine.
