Incident in the town of Ust-Ilimsk comes just days after the Russian president announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men
Source - Daily Telegraph - 26/09/22
A man opened fire and wounded a recruitment officer at an enlistment centre in Siberia on Monday, the local governor said, as tensions mount over Russia's military mobilisation.
The incident occurred in the town of Ust-Ilimsk in Irkutsk, a vast and thinly populated region of south-eastern Siberia
In a video published on social mediat the gunman is seen identifying himself to police officers as Ruslan Zinin, 25, and firing at least one shot inside the draft office
Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the head of the draft office was in hospital in a critical condition, and that the gunman "will absolutely be punished"
"I am ashamed that this is happening at a time when, on the contrary, we should be united. We must not fight with each but against real threats," Mr Kobzev said
"I have given instructions to strengthen security measures. I ask everyone to remain calm," he said
A number of draft offices have been attacked since Vladimir Putin declared a partial mobilisation last Wednesday
Protests against the draft took place over the weekend in Dagestan and Yakutia, both of which have supplied disproportionate numbers of soldiers for the war in Ukraine
Elsewhere, border crossing points out of Russia became clogged up by men of fighting age attempting to flee the country. There was reportedly a 24-mile queue into neighbouring Georgia as thousands attempted to escape across the frontier
Flights to other countries had already sold out within hours of Putin’s mobilisation announcement
It comes as Britain's Ministry of Defence said that the initial tranches of men called up as part of the mobilisation have started arriving at military bas
"Many tens of thousands of call-up papers have already been issued. Russia will now face an administrative and logistical challenge to provide training for the troops," the MoD said
It added that many of the drafted troops will not have had any military experience for some years, and that many will be deployed to the front line with "minimal relevant preparation
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