Russian soldier was imprisoned for declining to fight in Ukraine

For refusing to take part in the “special military operation,” Marsel Kandarov received a five-year prison sentence from a Russian court.

A Russian court, according to officials, sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine.

The soldier failed to report for duty in May 2022 because he “did not want to take part in a particular military operation,” according to the press office for the Bashkortostan area courts in the southern Urals on Thursday.

The statement also mentioned that police discovered Marsel Kandarov in September.

Separately, a military tribunal announced that it had sentenced Kandarov to five years in prison for avoiding military service for more than a month during mobilisation.

After suffering defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces on the battlefield, Russia declared the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September.

The statement caused a mass flight of men from Russia, with many heading to nearby nations like Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Georgia.

Russians all over the country protested the order, but when police tried to break up the protests, they locked up hundreds of people, including some children.

Many troops who were mobilised, according to critics, had little to no experience fighting on the front lines and no training.

Separately, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday that a military court in Moscow had sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for “beating” an officer during a fight.

According to TASS, the soldier “expressed his unhappiness” with how mobilised service members are being trained outside of Moscow.

He spoke while blowing smoke from his cigarette into the face of an officer, who reacted by shoving him away. The private then struck the officer in the chest.

An internet video of the incident shows the soldier complaining about his inadequate training, cursing, and calling the manoeuvres “imitation.”

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES AND AL JAZEERA