Russia is forcing citizens of Crimea to serve in its army, in breach of international law, Ukrainian prosecutors and human rights organizations said at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 25.
The prosecutor’s office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and non-government human rights organizations have now sent notification of this to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the Netherlands, including evidence they have gathered about Russia’s actions.
In accordance with international law, Russia has no right to force citizens of an occupied territory to serve in its armed forces, Elizaveta Dzigora, a prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, said during the press conference.
“Russia is not adhering to this ban, and army conscription campaigns are taking place. This is an obvious war crime,” said Dzigora.
The purpose of sending the notification to International Criminal Court is to allow the court’s prosecutors to conduct investigations in Ukraine, she said.
“A repressive system for drafting (Crimeans) into Russia’s army has been created, under which it is a crime to avoid serving in the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” said Maxim Tymochko, a lawyer at Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, non-profit and non-partisan association of 30 Ukrainian human rights NGOs.
According to the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office, 12,229 residents of the peninsula have already been called up to serve in the Russian army since Russia invaded and started its occupation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014. Russia has conducted 33 court cases related to the criminal prosecution of Crimean citizens for evading military service.
Under Article 40, Part 3 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power may not compel protected persons (the citizens of the occupied territory) to do work directly related to military operations.
Oleksandr Sedov, an analyst at the Crimean Human Rights Group, reported that 165 legal acts had already been collected confirming that citizens of Crimea have been drafted into the occupying power’s army.
“There are orders from the Russian president to begin the campaign, laws that allow this campaign in the occupied territory, as well as reports from local administrations,” said Sedov.
The expert group has also analyzed 2,000 pages in social networks, and found that at least nine recruits from Crimea had received awards for participating in Russian military operations in Syria.
Currently, another Russian conscription campaign is underway in Russian-occupied Crimea, under which Russia plans to draft another 3,000 soldiers to its army.
“This indicates that the Russia’s crime has not stopped, so our work to collect evidence will continue,” said Sedov.
