In one Russian region, half of the men mobilized for war are not eligible for military service.

The first Russian military mobilization since the Second World War, declared by President Vladimir Putin on September 21, is proceeding with many difficulties.

The Kremlin’s decision – also given the latest implications on the battlefield – aroused widespread discontent among the population and also among officials responsible for managing the military service, who in many cases would have sent a summons to men without the eligibility requirements I needed to take up arms and go to the trenches.

To give a measure of the profound difficulties of partial mobilization is what is happening in the Khabarovsk region, where military commissar Yuri Laiko has been suspended from service. “This will have no bearing on the goal set by the president” Vladimir Putin, the governor said in a video posted on Telegram. Mikhail Degtiariov, without explaining the exact reason for the measure, but only saying that “in ten days, several thousand of our compatriots were summoned and went to the military police stations. We sent home about half of them because they did not meet the selection criteria to join the army”. And then: “Partial mobilization concerns only the categories designated by the Ministry of Defense and the President. Any abuse must be punished.”

As is well known, on September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of the population to fight in Ukraine. Officially, this measure is expected to involve 300,000 reservists with military experience, but there have been numerous reports of recruitment of the elderly, students, patients and recruits without any specialization. Last week, Putin asked to correct the “mistakes” of the mobilization, which provoked protests in the country and led thousands of men to flee abroad.