REUTERS

In June of this year, a forced military draft campaign completed in the Russian-occupied Crimea with a record-high number of 3,300 local men being conscripted, as stated in the report by UN Office for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Ukraine, which covers the period from May 16 to August 15, 2019.

Given this figure, the total number of Crimean recruits stands at least at 18,000, according to the research, TSN reports.

It is noted that some of the men drafted as part of the 2019 spring campaign, just as in the previous four drafts starting 2017, were deployed to military bases across Russia.

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OHCHR found that 29 Crimean residents had been convicted for draft evasion. Russian legislation provides for up to two years in prison for such crime. Four sentences were handed down in the first half of 2019, 22 in 2018, and three in 2017.

With the exception of one case where the convict was sentenced to a suspended prison term, draft evaders were fined RUB 5,000 to RUB 60,000 ($80-$902).

As UNIAN reported earlier, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Fiona Frazer said that international humanitarian law imposes a number of obligations on the Russian Federation as an occupying power, for example, it must not apply its laws and should not impose its citizenship, residents of the occupied territory must not be forced to join the army of the Russian Federation.