Russia’s Defence Minister Shoigu promises women will not be drafted under ‘partial mobilisation’

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has declared that women would not be drafted under “partial mobilisation”, reports Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.

“We don't have any plans for this in the future. We are not going to draft women,” Shoigu said.

Furthermore, he promised that students of commercial higher education institutions that have state accreditation would not be mobilised.

“Additions to the presidential decree have been prepared. As you know, in accordance with the president’s decree, students of state higher education institutions are not subject to mobilisation,” he emphasised.

On 21 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on “partial mobilisation” in Russia. In the text of the decree, the mobilisation is called “partial”, however, no specifications (territorial, categorical) are established. “According to this text, anyone could be drafted, except for employees of defence enterprises that get an exemption for the period of their work,” political scientist Ekaterina Shulman noted at the time.

Soon after, countless reports of violations of the “partial mobilisation” process started coming in. For example, head of the Agora human rights group Pavel Chikov reported that HIV-infected Russian citizens had received draft notices despite a governmental website previously saying that they were not subject to mobilisation.