Security forces in Russia’s Penza region reportedly abducting civilians to fight in Ukraine

Male civilians in central Russia’s Penza region are being rounded up and forced to enlist to fight in Ukraine by members of the security forces, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Get Lost, an underground organisation that supports Russian men attempting to avoid conscription.

In a video posted by Penza resident Natalya Solomina on Wednesday, several women can be seen pleading with uniformed men outside a military recruitment office in an apparent attempt to prevent their loved ones from being taken away. The women can be heard saying that their partners had been beaten and were forced to sign military contracts.

Independent media outlet Mediazona subsequently identified the building in the video as the military recruitment office for Penza’s Oktyabrsky and Zheleznodorozhny districts.

Multiple reports made to Get Lost by residents of the Penza region describe how men have been detained on the street, on public transport and while driving, after which they've been bundled into waiting vehicles and taken to sign contracts, Get Lost said.

Citing eyewitnesses, Varlamov News reported that checkpoints manned by the military, as well as by riot and traffic police, had been set up in the regional capital Penza on Friday morning, and that those stopped were being forcibly taken to military enlistment offices.

According to posts in one popular Telegram channel about mobilisation, once those abducted arrive at military recruitment offices, they are “subjected to intense pressure and beaten” into enlisting to fight in Ukraine.

“Everyone is calling each other, warning people not to let men go out onto the street. A cashier at the shopping centre shouted at a lad who works there, right in front of me, telling him to stay inside and not go outside to smoke as they’re on the lookout there,” one Penza resident was quoted as saying by Telegram Channel Govorit NeMoskva.

The regional authorities have not commented on the reports of forced conscription, though the regional office of the National Guard did confirm that an “inter-agency operation to identify citizens who had not registered for military service” had been carried out in the Penza region.

As the Russian military struggles to maintain its fighting force in the face of sky-high death and injury rates, the Kremlin has resorted to increasingly drastic measures to ensure a steady supply of recruits for its over-extended army in Ukraine.

While rounding up civilians on the street and forcing them to enlist is relatively rare, the Russian authorities have for years been granting violent criminals early release from prison if they agree to serve in the military for six months, enabling many of them to reoffend upon their return from the war.