04:45 PM
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Moscow – (dpa)
A senior Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow has so far recruited about 10,000 people who have obtained Russian citizenship and sent them to fight in its more than two-year-long war against Ukraine.
“We have already caught more than 30,000 migrants who received citizenship and did not want to register for military service, and sent about 10,000 of them to the zone of the special military operation,” Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian Investigative Committee, said in his speech at the St. Petersburg Legal Forum.
Bastrykin was a colleague of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is considered one of his close associates.
The men who were recruited were mainly responsible for digging trenches and building fortifications, Bastrykin said, adding: “You need really strong arms to do that.”
In recent months, security forces have repeatedly carried out raids on companies employing migrant workers.
Russian media reported that those who have already obtained Russian passports are often forcibly conscripted. Others are promised an easier naturalization process if they are sent to the front.