Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to mobilize 300,000 troops on the Ukrainian battlefield, causing a backlash. Figure: Photo by Luwang / Sohu (archive photo)
A shooting took place on the 15th in a military training camp in Belgorod (Belgorod), a city on the border with Ukraine. The disputes led to the shooting; other witnesses revealed that the actual death toll was much higher than the official Russian statement and a total of 32 people were actually killed.
The Russian Defense Ministry had previously issued a statement saying that at the training camp of the Western Military District of Belgorod, the suspects were two citizens of the former Soviet Union, who were conducting firearms training with volunteer soldiers who “they voluntarily participated in the special military operation against Ukraine”. 11 people were killed and 15 injured, and two gunmen were “killed” after the incident.
In response to the accusation that Ukraine was behind the scenes, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych refuted and broke the news that the two gunmen were from the Tajik Muslim Republic, officials quarreled fiercely, then opened fire in anger. . Witnesses said the death toll was much higher than the official Russian announcement, with 32 people killed in the incident.
The independent Latvian news network “Meduza” (Meduza) quoted people familiar with the matter as saying on the 17th that because the Tajik soldiers recruited by the Russian government for training refused to participate in the war that “does not belong to they “and asked to be discharged, the commander of the battalion Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Lapin proclaimed in front of everyone that it was a” holy war “.
The Tajik soldiers disapproved of him enough, replying that “Jihad is a war between Muslims and infidels”, but the commander replied: “If Allah does not allow you to fight for the country to which you have sworn allegiance, He is ‘the weak one’. ‘,’ Cowards’! ” The Tajiks then installed their machine guns in anger and conflict broke out during shooting training that afternoon. “They shot our commander with live bullets and Lieutenant Colonel Rabin died instantly … The gunmen opened fire, strafing at will,” said a soldier on the spot.
Elisabeth Braw, a national security expert at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), told Al-Jazeera that the shooting underscored the level of dissatisfaction with the mobilization order in Russia and other former Soviet states. He said: “Whoever the killer was, this shows the lack of protection of the Russian military base … and also shows that the Russian authorities were not prepared. After the first soldier was shot, they (other soldiers on the scene) he couldn’t even kill the suspect. He killed 11 soldiers. “
Another foreign media pointed out that the Russian side said the victims were volunteers who had volunteered to fight on the Ukrainian front line, but they were all people forced to go to the battlefield due to Putin’s mobilization order. The incident was the latest blow to Russia’s “special military operation” after President Vladimir Putin announced last month that 300,000 recruits would be mobilized to fight Ukraine. Putin said on the 14th that more than 220,000 reservists have been recruited and the goal is to recruit 300,000. He has promised that the mobilization will end within two weeks.
