This year Russia will call up 5 thousand Crimean residents for military service

In 2017, almost 5,000 residents of the annexed Crimea will be recruited to the Russian army.

According to Krym.Realiyi citing TASS, this was stated by Andrey Kolesov, Chief of the Organization-Mobilization Directorate of the Southern Military District.

“This Spring, In Crimea 2.4 thousand people will be enlisted to army, 400 of whom are from Sevastopol. As compared to 2015 the number of recruits will increase by 70% and two years ago only 1.5 thousand Crimean residents were enlisted”, – said Kolesov.

On March 31, Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defense of Russia, stated that residents of the Crimea started receiving summons to serve in the Russian army in all regions of Russia.

As a reminder, On December 20, 2016, UN General Assembly voted for the resolution on “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)”, which was prepared by Ukraine.

The resolution recognized Russia as a state-occupier and Crimea as a temporarily occupied territory. The document condemns the annexation of the Crimea and repressions against Crimean Tatars.

In addition, the resolution notes the prohibition of enlistment on the occupied territories to serve in the armed forces of the occupant country. After all, such actions are expressly prohibited by Article 51 of the Geneva Convention.

In addition, Sergiy Zayets, lawyer of the Regional Centre for Human Rights, in an interview to the Human Rights Information Centre noted that the obligation of Crimean residents to serve in the army is a consequence of imposed citizenship.

And imposed citizenship is a major violation of Article 8 of the European Convention. And Crimean residents can appeal against the actions of the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights.