Mobilised St Petersburg man denied substitute service, transferred to rear-based unit

Kirill Berezin, a mobilised man from Russia’s Saint Petersburg who had been denied alternative civilian service by court decision has been eventually transferred to a rear-based military unit, as per BBC Russia.

Berezin will serve as a driver and mechanic in a unit near Luga in the Saint Petersburg region and will be repairing equipment. Nikifor Ivanov, Berezin’s lawyer, noted that this change might be considered substitute service his client was applying for as “his chances of going to the frontlines are now much lower”.

The transfer eventually happened owing to public disclosure and the command of the Luga unit where Berezin served his mandatory term eight years ago, his lawyer says.

“Formally, this isn’t substitute service, but at least I won’t be forced to shoot people, and that is a good thing to me,” says Berezin, 27. He also added that two of his comrades-in-arms who had also fled from a military camp near the border with Ukraine were eventually sent back there. “They did not resist,” he said.

Berezin’s appeal for substitute service was rejected by court in late November before he was taken to a military unit.

Berezin received a draft notice on 24 September and visited his local conscription office in an hour’s time where he asked to have his service substituted. His application for alternative service was not considered, and he was sent to Kamenka for training before arriving at a tent camp near Belgorod.

The man refused to hold a firearm in order to kill people and kept demanding that his service be substituted.

After one month, Berezin fled the military unit and went back to Saint Petersburg where he addressed the local Investigative Committee, reporting his desertion and murder threats he had received from Anatoly Smerdov, his commanding officer.