Mobilization in Donetsk - military registration and enlistment offices are empty, only Russians call

Moscow – Kyiv, February 11 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – A Kommersant special correspondent reports today on the strangeness of the mobilization in the DPR . According to his observations, despite Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko threatening to increase the militia's strength to 100, district military enlistment offices in Donetsk are empty. Meanwhile, military enlistment officers report receiving numerous calls from Russians requesting mobilization.

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Mobilization began in the DPR on Monday, the publication writes. The district military registration and enlistment offices stand empty. “We have neither conscripts nor volunteers,” said the duty officer at one of the military registration and enlistment offices on Sobinov Street. “But many people call from Russia asking how to sign up for the militia.”

“Voluntary mobilization is recruitment for a contract,” explained the local military commissar. “In Donetsk, only the regional military registration and enlistment office deals with this.”

Several military trucks were parked next to the regional military registration and enlistment office; about 15 volunteers were waiting in the courtyard to be sent to the unit, Kommersant’s special correspondent describes the situation. The working day, however, at the military registration and enlistment office was short. “There was work in the morning, when your colleagues from television came, and by lunchtime everyone left,” the duty officer said.

Let us recall that many men of military age left Donbass for Crimea and Russia with their families in the summer, despite the fact that the militias stationed at the border checkpoints shamed them for their unwillingness to defend the republics. Militia leaders also repeatedly complained about the reluctance of miners and many other combat-ready men in Donbass to take up arms.

The publication does not draw any conclusions in this regard, however, some assumptions arise in connection with the passivity of the unconscripted Donbass residents and the activity of Russians calling the military registration and enlistment offices.