Mobilized soldiers from Yakutia were forced to join private military companies and sent to Bakhmut. This was reported by Fedot Tumusov, a member of the State Duma, in his blog on April 18.
Six mobilized men from Yakutia have been included in the Veteran PMC, part of the 3rd Army Corps, and the Wagner Group. Prior to being sent to Bakhmut, one of the mobilized men was able to report that their phones had been confiscated.
Fedot Tumusov has contacted the Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu and Yana Lantratova, the Duma member responsible for ensuring the rights of the mobilized and their families. According to Tumusov, Andrei Kartapolov, the Chairman of the Duma Defense Committee and author of the law on electronic summonses, said that "this cannot be". However, he promised to investigate the matter.
The founder of the Vagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has stated that the organization has not coerced anyone into signing contracts.
In early April, more than 100 mobilized men in the Luhansk Region stopped communicating after refusing to sign contracts with the Wolves PMC. On April 16th, a group of servicemen from the Moscow and Ivanovo Regions recorded a video message claiming that they had illegally been transferred to Luhansk. The mobilized men demanded to be returned to the command of the Ministry of Defense.
