The military signed an order to transfer the mobilized Petersburger Kirill Berezin to the rear near Luga to serve as a driver-mechanic. His lawyer, Nikifor Ivanov, told Mediazona about this.
27-year-old cabinetmaker Berezin was called up at the end of September as part of a “partial mobilization”. He came to the military enlistment office to explain that his 69-year-old grandmother remained on his payroll, but he was taken to Kamenka near Vyborg, and from there to a military camp near Belgorod.
«I refuse to do everything that is listed in the oath.» A mobilized Petersburger does not take up arms even in a military unit
Berezin asked to be transferred to alternative service and refused to take up arms. Because of this, the commander threatened to hit him “on the head with a rifle butt and, in an unconscious state, shove him into a KAMAZ truck [as far as Ukraine].”
At the end of October, Berezin escaped from the camp, returned to St. Petersburg and wrote a confession to the UK. After the court refused to transfer him to alternative service, the military commander's office returned the man to the unit near Kamenka. Berezin was afraid that he would again be “sent to Belgorod and killed there.”
Now the Petersburger has been allowed to go home for a few days, he will have to come to the unit near Luga on December 12th. This part is engaged in the repair of military equipment. Berezin told the Russian service of the BBC that he hoped that he would not be sent from there to the front. Lawyer Ivanov called the conditions of service there «de facto ACS.»
How long Berezin will have to serve before the end of mobilization is unknown.