Already about 500 Buryat contract soldiers refused to fight in Ukraine, terminated the contract and were able to return home. Another group of 150 people arrived in the Republic on July 9, according to the Free Buryatia Foundation. As Alexander Garmazhapova, head of the Foundation, said on the air of the Freedom TV channel, the Foundation receives more and more requests for help from the military every day.

Garmazhapova notes that, according to the law, contractors have every right to terminate the contract and not fight in Ukraine, but they are told otherwise, threatened with criminal cases, locked up, their phones taken away, and reports are not accepted.

“Commanders pretend not to see the reports, put seals “prone to lies and betrayal,” says Garmazhapova. - About 300-350 contract soldiers turned to us, and every day more and more. Every day at least 1-2 people apply. Very often, those who apply do not represent themselves alone. That is, they are locked somewhere, and one of them turns out to have a phone. And he starts writing to us, calling and asking what to do, what about 10-15 more people with him, that they want to break the contract, but they are not allowed to do it. We consult. In total, about 500 people passed through us. These are all people who say that they do not want to fight, that they do not understand what they are doing there. Also apply from other regions. Now there is a situation with Tuvan servicemen. Three weeks ago they wrote reports on the termination of service, but they were not accepted, and up to 20 people are now locked up in the commandant's office of one of the occupied regions in eastern Ukraine and are not being released. They are afraid that they will be sent to the front line without equipment, so that they die quietly there.”

“Up to 20 Tuvans are now locked up in the commandant's office of one of the occupied regions in eastern Ukraine. They are afraid that they will be sent to the front lines without equipment.”

Garmazhapova recalled that a week ago, an appeal was published by the wives of servicemen from Buryatia, who asked to replace their husbands with other men and return them to their homeland. In fact, their husbands were already returning home, but at the time of the publication of the appeal they were turned around, some had to jump out of their bus on the move.

“In fact, they used this wording as part of military censorship,” says the head of the Foundation. - At the time of recording the video, their husbands had already written reports about the termination of the contract. But it turned out that after their video message appeared on the network, the bus with these men, who were already on their way home, was turned around, and they were again sent to the territory occupied in Ukraine, and left there for another 10 days. And yesterday, today, planes began to arrive, and there are already those who refused. The contract can be terminated. There is no punishment for this. This is real. Yes, they were kept locked up, but they managed to return. Either like this, or with a load of 200.

The head of the legal department of the Free Buryatia Foundation, Andrei Rinchino , told the Agency publication that a group of 120 contract soldiers recently got into a fight with the military police in the "LPR". They were all tied up and told that it was impossible to leave this territory without permission. For this, allegedly, criminal liability is provided. “The FSB works closely with them, as well as with their relatives. They interrogate. They mostly threaten, but they can’t really do anything,” says Rinchino.

Refusing to fight the Buryat military is motivated not only by fear, but also by a lack of understanding of why they should “denazify” Ukraine, Garmazhapova explains.

“I was contacted by one military man who managed to terminate the contract, he said: “I don’t want to be an occupier. And I don’t understand why we are “denazifying” Ukraine if I lived in Moscow for 9 years and faced racism and xenophobia there.” At the beginning, I often heard phrases that “NATO is there, demilitarization is needed.” And then I remind you - “in Moscow they tell you that you are “chocks” and “narrow-eyed” and should go home. Are you sure that Ukraine needs “denazification”? Are you saying that you want to protect the Russian language in Ukraine? Remember what happens to the languages ​​of the indigenous peoples of Russia in Russia? And that it was Vladimir Putin who initiated the fact that your language was transferred to the category of an elective and became optional for learning. And then something clicks in people.”