Russian ombudsman checks reports of servicemen being coerced to fight in Ukraine

(Interfax – Moscow, May 6, 2015)

Russian Human Rights Ombudsman Ella Pamfilova has not confirmed reports of Russian servicemen’s presence on the territory of Ukraine.

“Inquiries concerning each of the incidents mentioned in the press had been sent to military prosecutors of military districts and directly to the chief military prosecutor. It follows from the official replies received by the ombudsman that the abovementioned reports have not been confirmed,” says Pamfilova’s report on the human rights situation in Russia in 2014.

The document was published on the [government-owned daily] Rossiyskaya Gazeta website on Wednesday [6 May].

Pamfilova’s report says Russian media has claimed on several occasions – referencing the human rights organizations “Soldiers’ Mothers of St Petersburg” and “For Human Rights” – that conscripts had been forced to sign military service contracts. “It was tied in with the crisis in southeast Ukraine and the alleged deployment of Russian servicemen in the conflict zone,” the report said.

Additional checks were conducted on the basis of requests from human rights organizations, the report said.

“The ombudsman’s staff have contacted the parents of the servicemen named in the letters by phone. None of the claimants have confirmed that their son had been coerced into signing a contract or, even more so, into taking part in the armed conflict in east Ukraine. All the claimants explained that the absence of information from military units and concern for their sons moved them to file the claims,” the report says.

Pamfilova also checked media reports of the detention of 10 Russian servicemen in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region in August 2014. The document states that the ombudsman inquired with Russia’s chief military prosecutor about the incident.

According to the report, a reply was received from the chief military prosecutor’s office from which it follows that the 10 Russian servicemen were patrolling the area near Russia’s state border, got lost and were detained by Ukrainian servicemen to be handed over to the Russian side on 21 August.