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Since 2015, the occupants have illegally conducted 13 conscription campaigns, forcing more than 34,000 Crimeans to serve in the Russian Armed Forces.
This is reported by UA with the reference to the website of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
According to the report, on October 1, 2021, the occupation administration launched another illegal campaign.
Currently, in a special pre-trial investigation, an indictment has been sent to the court against the “military commissar of the Simferopol district and the city of Alushta of the Republic of Crimea” under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (violation of the laws and customs of war). The sanction of the article provides for a sentence of 8 to 12 years in prison.
The accused, a citizen of the Russian Federation, in 2018 was appointed to the position of “military commissar of the Simferopol district and the city of Alushta of the Republic of Crimea”. In this position, the “commissar” implemented the policy of the Russian Federation and its occupation administration, aimed at conducting illegal forced conscription campaigns of the civilian population of the peninsula to the ranks of the armed forces of the occupying state. Therefore, implementing the illegal “decrees” of the top leadership of the occupying state, the accused directly developed plans and organized 5 conscription campaigns for Crimean citizens in the districts. These actions violate the prohibition of the occupying State to compel the civilian population to serve in its armed forces, as provided for in Article 51 IV of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949.
“We have identified and reported on suspicion of committing a war crime to 10 military commissars of various districts of the occupied Crimea, including the so-called military commissar of the Republic of Crimea. The court is also considering an indictment against the “military commissar of the city of Feodosia and the Kirovske district of the Republic of Crimea”, which was sent as a special pre-trial investigation” – said the head of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol Ihor Ponochovny.
To remind, Russian occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied territory in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have launched a large-scale campaign to conscript the local population for military service.
Read also: Civilian casualties increased in eastern Ukraine – the United Nations
