Connection e.V. — on September 20, 2024
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Even two years after the partial mobilisation declared by President Putin on 21 September 2022, Russian conscientious objectors to the war in Ukraine are generally not granted asylum in Germany. Connection e.V. has now received more than a dozen negative decisions from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (German: Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge, BAMF). The main argument is that there is no “real risk” that they will be called up to fight in the war. “These are people who have decided against participating in the war of aggression, which is in violation of international law,” said Rudi Friedrich from Connection e.V. today. “Instead of supporting their decision, they are being ordered to return to Russia. In this way, human resources are supplied to the Russian army.“
Recruitment efforts have been intensified in Russia in recent months.
- In April 2023, the Russian Parliament passed a law allowing the online platform ‘Gosuslugi’ (Госуслуги), set up by the Russian government for state and municipal services, can also be used to serve summons to the military commissariat. Documents are deemed to have been served when they have been received on a person’s account. The service is accompanied by a ban on leaving Russia. ‘This actually means,’ says Artyom Klyga, a Russian lawyer from the Movement for Conscientious Objection Russia who lives in Germany, ‘that if these people return back, criminal prosecution measures will take effect and the existing summons will be enforced. Furthermore, they will no longer have the opportunity to leave the country which will significantly increase the danger of being drafted for war.’
- Repeatedly, there are raids and detentions of conscripts in various cities. For example, in May 2024, police officers carried out raids in Moscow with the participation of the Moscow conscription authority and the Unified Draft Office and detained an estimated 40 to 60 people of conscription age. After their arrest, the people concerned, aged between 18 and 30, were taken to the collection centre at 3 Ugreshskaya Street, Building 6, from which conscripts are directly sent to military units.
- Since Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region in mid-August 2024, conscripts have once again been deployed in the war zone: ‘We have received dozens of enquiries from concerned parents, relatives and friends,’ reports Sofia Zelenkevich from the Russian exile organisation Idite Lesom (Go by the Forest). ‘They tell us that conscripts are sent to the war zone in Kursk, where the Ukrainian army invaded a few weeks ago, shortly after being called up. They are not military trained and are nothing more than cannon fodder.’
- Migrants, in particular, are being pressured to ‘volunteer’ in the army. ‘The law has been changed,’ explains Artyom Klyga. ‘Now Russian citizens who received citizenship not by birth can be deprived of their Russian passports if they do not register for military service.’ ‘Raids take place every day in the areas where migrants live,’ adds Sofia Zelenkevich. ‘They are oppressed or tricked into signing contracts with the military with false claims. This lead them to be sent to the war zone in Ukraine.’
‘It can be assumed,’ says Rudi Friedrich, ‘that the pressure on conscripts will increase. A few days ago, President Putin announced plans to reinforce the army by a further 180,000 soldiers.’ As the independent Russian news platform Mediazona reported, an additional 180,000 soldiers are to bring the army to almost 1.5 million by December 2024. This is already the third increase in troop numbers since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Connection e.V. is once again calling on the German government to guarantee protection and asylum for conscientious objectors, draft evaders and deserters. ‘There was a positive step with a statement by the Ministry of the Interior in May 2022 that Russian deserters should receive refugee protection. But it turns out that almost all those who have evaded recruitment and seek protection are rejected in asylum procedures. This is an untenable situation.’
In conclusion, Connection e.V. reiterates that the right to conscientious objection to serve in the military and engage in war is a human right inherent to the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; it is universal and non-derogable and as stated by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in its recent thematic report (A/HRC/56/30) “individuals should be able to object before the commencement of military service, or at any stage during or after military service”. Currently, this right is not protected in line with international standards in Russia and those who want to refuse are de facto prevented to do so or persecuted and should be protected as stated by UNHCR in its Guidelines on International Protection No. 10.
Further information is regularly provided by Connection e.V. as part of the #ObjectWarCampaign, an international network of more than 120 organisations across Europe campaigning for protection and asylum for conscientious objectors and deserters from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine: https://en.Connection-eV.org/ObjectWarCampaign and https://objectwarcampaign.org/en.
Connection e.V.: Press Release, September 20, 2024