Convicted of desertion, he was again sent to war, he was captured

Russian army serviceman Mykola Kartashev, who was convicted of arbitrarily deserting his unit, was again sent to war in Ukraine, where he was taken prisoner, despite the sentence, Mediazon reports with reference to the soldier’s mother.

According to Iryna Kartasheva, the day before she got a call from a Ukrainian number and gave the phone to her son, who told her about what happened. “It’s good that he’s alive, the rest are dead,” Mediazon quotes the mother of a soldier who, according to her, was promised an exchange for Ukrainian soldiers held captive by Russia.

On December 16 last year, Corporal Mykola Kartashev, who served in the landing unit near Pskov, and then was sent to the territory of Ukraine in the combat zone, was sentenced to one year of conditional imprisonment. According to the investigation, he voluntarily left the location of the unit, going to the Rostov region.

• In September of last year, the Russian authorities tightened the punishment for the arbitrary abandonment of military units or places of service, introducing the concepts of “mobilization” and “martial position” into the relevant legislation. Since that time, hundreds of criminal cases have been instituted against Russian servicemen – both those who evaded conscription for the so-called “partial mobilization” and those who refused to take part in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine – and dozens have already been sentenced sentenced
• In February of this year, the State Duma introduced amendments to the federal law “On the status of military personnel”, according to which soldiers during the period of mobilization or martial law may be subject to disciplinary arrest without a court decision. If the document is accepted, then their commanders or representatives of the military police will be able to arrest servicemen. According to the current legislation, only the garrison military court can make a decision on arrest. At the same time, the mass media and human rights defenders have repeatedly reported on violations of the rights of those who have been mobilized, who, having entered the territory of Ukraine, refuse to go to the front lines. In particular, it was reported that there were several “basements for refuseniks” in the Donetsk region. Military personnel are kept there in de facto torture conditions, without adequate food, medical and legal assistance.