Rights defenders receive signals about forced sending of residents of Chechnya to the front

Dozens of residents of Chechnya have sent messages asking for help to leave Russia in order to avoid being sent to Ukraine, the Chechen human rights association "Vayfond" has informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ramzan Kadyrov is regularly reporting the dispatch of volunteer detachments to Ukraine and posts video reports from unit commanders. On May 5, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that another detachment of 200 fighters had voluntarily left Chechnya for the special operation in Ukraine.

On May 13, human rights defenders from the "Vayfond" association informed that they had received dozens of messages from Chechen residents who ask to help them to leave Russia in an attempt to escape sending to Ukraine, the association has informed on its Telegram channel.

"The 'Vayfond' association receives dozens of messages from residents of the Chechen Republic asking for help to leave Russia, as they are prepared for sending to Ukraine. These people assert that they are not employees of law enforcement or military structures; and even disability is not a salvation from being sent to Ukraine," the association has stated.

However, human rights defenders have stated that they can't help those who have turned thereto. "Unfortunately, we can't and are not competent to help people to migrate. This is terrible, and we don't yet know how we can help these people," the rights defenders have stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 13, 2022 at 09:22 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.