The National Resistance Center has obtained training materials for Russian military commissars.
The manual “military commissar’s manual” is being actively distributed among employees of certain departments of the occupation administration in the TOT of Zaporizhzhia region. In this way, the occupiers want to close the possibility for TOT residents to avoid service in the Russian Armed Forces through the “alternative civilian service” loophole.
The manual itself, which is being distributed, was developed back in 2021 by the Department of Mobilization Management of the Moscow “Zhukov Order of the Russian Armed Forces”.
The book describes the procedural and legal issues that arise during the conscription of people for service in the Russian Armed Forces.
According to the NRC from a source in the occupation administration of one of the cities, the distribution of the manual was caused by the low rates of recruitment to the Russian army as part of the conscription for the TOT.
In particular, the mailing includes the following text: “all employees who are concerned are strongly advised to read section 7 of the manual”.
As you know, conscription for military service in the Russian Federation lasts from April 25 to July 15. It also applies to the newly occupied territories where conscription commissions have been established.
In the TOT of Zaporizhzhia region, such commissions were established by order of Gauleiter Yevhen Balytsky. Due to the unregulated and chaotic nature of the process, the so-called occupiers’ military commissariats are now working in close cooperation with the formally “civilian” TOT authorities to meet the targets.
The text of Balytsky’s order assigned some of the staff of the administrations the responsibility to “take personal control over the fulfillment of the mandatory task of conscripting citizens for military service in April-July 2024.”
At the same time, the occupation authorities face a number of problems. Young people mostly try to avoid serving in the occupiers’ military formations, and if they cannot hide, they take advantage of the opportunity for alternative civilian service provided for by Russian law.
The number of applications for such service in the occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia region significantly exceeds the percentage in the territory of the Russian Federation.
That is why in the textbook mailing, employees are advised to read Chapter 7 of the book. It explains how to refuse those wishing to perform alternative civilian service on formal grounds.
It should be noted that such an “educational campaign” in the occupation administrations indicates preparations for future conscription campaigns, as well as during forced mobilization to the frontline units of the Russian Armed Forces.
The NRC is attaching the full text of the Russian “manual” so that victims of forced recruitment into the occupier’s army can study and use all possible loopholes themselves, as well as understand how they will be pressured if they fall into the hands of the occupiers’ accomplices:
