The military investigative department of the Pechenga garrison in Murmansk region has opened a criminal case against Denis Vasilyev, a medical corps lieutenant. He has refused to join combat troops for a tour in Ukraine. Pavel Chikov, head of the "Agora" human rights group, reported this on February 20.
Denis Vasilyev, a 2022 graduate of the Military Medical Academy, was serving in the Northern Fleet. When the special operation began in Ukraine, Vasilyev was offered a transfer to Franz Josef Land, but then, according to Pavel Chikov, the officer received an order to go to Ukraine.
The doctor refused and made an attempt to resign from the army, but the resignation process was blocked by partial mobilization. The Investigative Committee accuses Vasiliev of failing to comply with an order during mobilization.
Vladimir Putin introduced amendments regarding punishment for wartime crimes into the administrative and criminal codes on September 24, 2022, after the beginning of the mobilization. In December, the 35th garrison court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky sentenced mobilized Alexei Breusov to one year and eight months in a penal colony. According to the investigation, on October 6, Breusov refused to go to the "special operation zone, being aware of the announced mobilization.” Breusov has appealed his sentence to the Pacific Fleet Court.
In November, the Pskov garrison military court handed a contract serviceman a suspended sentence for refusing to fight. The serviceman “left without permission the place of service, a temporary deployment place of the military unit.”
