Men detained at anti-drug raid forced to sign contracts with Russian Defence Ministry

Police, military personnel, and National Guard members stormed a dining and entertainment complex in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don last Saturday, 4 July, independent media outlet Important Stories has reported. 

Security officials inspected the documents of those present and searched men for illegal substances, while the military attempted to find draft dodgers among the men, according to eyewitnesses.

A total of 35 men were detained during the raid, Important Stories said. Inside one of the vans they were taken to, the military urged the men to sign a contract with the Russian Defence Ministry to fight in Ukraine “to serve in rear units”.

Those who refused were told that “anything could happen” to them and that they risked “ending up in assault groups”, according to relatives of the detainees.

In June, it was reported that security officers were rounding up male civilians in central Russia’s Penza region and forcing them to enlist to fight in Ukraine. The National Guard later confirmed that an “inter-agency operation to identify citizens who had not registered for military service” had been carried out in the region.