A Russian court sentenced Marsel Kandarov to five years in prison for refusing to take part in the “special military operation”.
A Russian court has sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials said.
The soldier, who “did not want to take part in a military special operation,” did not report for duty in May 2022, the press service said on Thursday for courts in the Bashkortostan region in the southern Urals.
Police located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement said.
Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years in prison for evading military service for more than a month during the mobilization.
Russia announced the mobilization of 300,000 men in late September after suffering battlefield defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces.
The announcement sparked an exodus of men from Russia, many fleeing to neighboring countries such as Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
Russians across the country demonstrated against the order, but police have tried to disperse anti-war protests by arresting hundreds, including some children.
Critics say many mobilized men received little battlefield experience and training before being sent to the front lines.
Separately, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for “hitting” an officer during a dispute, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.
TASS said the soldier had “expressed his dissatisfaction” with the training of mobilized soldiers outside Moscow.
As he spoke, he blew cigarette smoke in the face of an officer, who then pushed him away. The private then punched the officer in the chest.
A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining about poor training, using profanity and calling the drills “imitation.”