1/ Hundreds of Russians who have refused to fight for various reasons – age, sickness, mental health – are reported to have been taken from a military base where they were being held and flown to Kursk, where they will likely be used in efforts to repel Ukraine's incursion. ⬇️

2/ ASTRA reports that hundreds of 'refuseniks' have been held at Kamenka near St Petersburg, where the 138th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade is based. Relatives say that some are unfit to fight, one man is 70 years old and can barely walk, and another has only one eye.

3/ The existence of the Kamenka military detention facility does not seem to have been reported previously. It suggests that different regimes are in place in Russia and occupied Ukraine, where refuseniks have been tortured, beaten and starved. https://t.co/1tMgBPjkRk

4/ According to relatives, on 12 August "at about 6 pm they received a message from the men who were there that they had been suddenly called to line up, and then, without any explanation, they were put in KAMAZ trucks and taken to a military airfield under guard."

5/ Two groups, of around 300 people and 150 people respectively, were reportedly driven away from Kamenka. The latter group ended up at a military training ground 7 km from Kursk. "They took them, grabbed them like a parcel, put them in and took them away," the relatives say.

6/ The men's wives are afraid that the army "will throw them onto the front line like meat, because they are not registering anything, they are not saying anything, everything is quiet."

7/ One man who was undergoing psychiatric treatment after fighting in the war told his mother that the army was "now dressing them, giving them an assault rifle and most likely [sending] them into battle."

8/ She worries that "if God forbid he has an explosion in his head and shoots someone, who will be to blame for this?"

9/ The men were not told where they were going. "As Comrade Colonel said, the center [in Kamenka] is being disbanded, but he does not know where they are being taken," a source told Astra.

10/ Around 20 of the refuseniks are said to have escaped on the way. It's not clear what will happen to them. Another 10 men "flatly refused" to board the buses and are reportedly being threatened with being sent to a pre-trial detention centre.

11/ The husband of one woman called her and told her that he and his companions "were just given assault rifles, changed into uniforms and sent to an unknown location. He says that about 20 servicemen managed to escape. No one was really looking for them."

12/ Like many of the convict soldiers who were sent to Ukraine in 2023, it appears that the refuseniks have become 'ghost soldiers' (see the thread below for more on this phenomenon). https://t.co/CmUWtiExOM

13/ A wife says: "We found out that they are still registered in the village of Kamenka, in this detention center for missing servicemen. It seems that no one is going to re-register them, and they are not going to assign them to any unit either.

14/ My husband says: "I'm just walking like meat now." And, he says, even if I fall ill here, you won't get anything, no payments, nothing. According to the documents, he is simply not there [on the front lines]."

15/ It's likely that Russia's abrupt use of these men indicates a severe shortage of reserves in the Kursk region. This appears to be forcing the Russian army to use whatever manpower it can find, no matter how unsuitable it may be. /end

Sources: 🔹 https://t.co/qpVqOfagP3 🔹 https://t.co/hKgmPhHJp8 🔹 https://t.co/Sl6yoWzqfR

https://t.co/SqQ35RBfpX

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