The E1.RU | Novosti Yekaterinburga [News of Yekaterinburg] Telegram channel:Relatives of conscripts serving in one of the Chebarkul units of the 90th Guards Tank Division said that the soldiers were being forced to sign a contract [with the Ministry of Defense]. Our colleagues from
@news_74ru reported that those arriving from Chuvashia [Russia's constituent Republic] and the Irkutsk region were under pressure.
According to the parents and wives of conscripts, on the first day of their arrival at the garrison, they began to persuade the conscripts to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, and in case of refusal, they were promised to send them to serve in the border regions of Russia (Belgorod and Kursk regions were mentioned), from where the soldiers "will return as cargo 200 [KIAs]." As an alternative, they were offered to sign a contract and promised to leave them to serve in a unit in the Chelyabinsk region.
Sverdlovsk Ombudsman Tatyana Merzlyakova commented on the situation.
- Acting commander of the 90th Tank Division Andrey Saidov is in touch with me all the time. Our soldiers' mothers are there now. We are closely monitoring the situation with our guys. As of today, there have been no requests from soldiers from the Sverdlovsk region from there. But our conscripts also serve in the 43rd [Separate Cadet Rifle] Brigade, we are also in touch with the commander. We have a lot of conscripts, they are in the training center in the urban locality of Yelan, the authorized representative answered.
The Ombudsman added that many conscripts themselves ask how to sign a contract.
- I want to say that we have raised our guys in such a way that some soldiers who have just been called up, while still in Yegorshino at the assembly point, are already asking how to sign a contract. I myself have seen and heard this, and I myself convinced them that it will be more useful if you study, strive for something, added Tatyana Merzlyakova.