Ukrainians deported from Ukraine into Russia may be drafted into the Russian military, the Ukrainian National Resistance Center claimed on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian government body asserted that the Kremlin was preparing to conscript migrants and civilians transferred from Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia in order to reduce possible tensions with Russian citizens over mobilization.
Deportations and displacement of Ukrainians
Thousands of Ukrainian citizens are alleged to have been forcibly deported by the Kremlin during the Russian occupation. In March, it was claimed that 40,000 civilians were deported. Many of these civilians are claimed to have been from Mariupol, but Russia has denied this claim, with Kremlin Spokesperson Dimitry Peskov asserting that the Russian military aided civilians in leaving the city while fighting raged around the city.
The National Resistance Center also claimed on Tuesday that mobilization was continuing in the disputed Crimean peninsula. Ukraine said while economists and IT specialists had previously been protected from conscription, this privilege is being revoked.
On Monday, a senior military official said in a Pentagon press briefing that mobilized troops were being sent to bolster defensive lines, but were "ill-equipped, ill-trained, rushed to the battlefield."
In the last month, the Ukrainian intelligence establishment has warned of a spring offensive by Russia that would be presaged by another mass mobilization of Russian citizens. Officials have claimed that the Kremlin could draft 300,000-500,000 people, which would potentially be a larger levy than Putin's mobilization in September.