Russian serviceman Ilya Kaminsky, listed as a member of the 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade, currently based in Ukraine, has been sent to a pre-trial detention facility in the Luhansk region after he had submitted a statement on refusing to participate in combat. Telegram channel Free Buryatia has published the appeals of the soldier’s mother and wife.
Kaminsky’s mother said that he had first asked to be able to go home on 28 April, after the birth of his child. However, both that and subsequent formal requests were met with no answer. On 11 July, when the brigade had come back from the frontline, he submitted a statement on refusing to participate in the war.
The serviceman’s mother noted that Kaminsky had not been the only one to refuse to continue fighting, other soldiers had done the same. She also said that the command had previously taken soldiers’ documents away, saying that the chance of their being taken prisoners was very high.
Several months ago, 115 employees of Russia’s National Guard had refused to go to Ukraine to fight, after which they were fired. At the end of May, a Kabardino-Balkaria (a North Caucasus region of Russia - translator’s note) military court deemed their premature firing legitimate.
