Men abducted en masse in Chechnya and sent to fight against Ukraine – media

SVITLANA KIZILOVA — THURSDAY, 26 MAY 2022, 17:51

Several Chechen human rights organisations, as well as bloggers, are talking about appeals from Chechen residents regarding men being abducted to be sent as "volunteers" to the war against Ukraine.

Details: According to human rights activists, the abducted men are forced to sign a contract under threat of spending an indefinite time in secret prisons.

In particular, the opposition movement 1ADAT reports on hundreds of people being abducted from different regions of Chechnya. According to the representative of the movement, 100 people are being held in one of the illegal prisons, and 30 in the other. These data are reported by men who witnessed such "mobilizations".

Officials of the human rights association "Vayfond" said that recently they received dozens of appeals from residents of Chechnya who claimed to be forcibly sent to war against Ukrainians. Among those who are being forced to become "volunteers", there are even people with disabilities. There are also civil servants who were required to sign an "application" to join the "volunteers".

"They and their families are being threatened and forced to sign papers. Although they absolutely do not want to go to war, they have to do so against their will. Moreover, in case of injury or death, the documents contain extremely low financial benefits, not those announced by the propaganda," officials of the Vayfond said.

Islam Belokiev, an opposition blogger and author of the "Mysli Islama" (thoughts of Islam) YouTube channel, also talks about dozens of confirmed cases of abduction while, according to him, only a small number of the victims contact human rights defenders.