Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In the latest incident of protest against President Vladimir Putin’s last Wednesday’s diktat for ‘partial mobilization’ of 300,000 able-bodied reservists for the Ukraine war, an angry Russian gunman shot at and critically injured an army commander while he was trying to draft local people for compulsory deployment in the war zone.
Officials later identified the attacker as Ruslan Zinin, 25.
Police detained the shooter and officials of the Irkutsk region said he “will absolutely be punished”.
Around 2,000 people have been arrested since Wednesday last week for protesting against calling the reservists to serve a futile war, which Russia is reportedly losing even seven months after relentlessly shelling Ukraine. War-torn Ukraine’s counteroffensive has forced Russian soldiers to surrender around 10,000 square km of occupied land this month and flee as over 80,000 Russian troops have either been killed or critically wounded.
The incident came soon after the government admitted its mistake in drafting even the elderly and the sick for the war in Ukraine.
According to the media reports, a man opened fire at a draft office in Russia’s Irkutsk region on Monday, in which the leader of the draft committee was severely injured. They reported the incident from the city of Ust-Ilimsk, a town of about 85,000 people in the Siberian region.
This is the latest incident linked to President Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization, which led to widespread protests in the country.
Videos on social media show the gunman opening fire at the draft office. In one clip, they saw him firing at the official from point blank range as other men called for drafting fled the scene.
The media reported a video showing the critically wounded official being carried from the building in a stretcher.
Irkutsk’s governor Igor Kobzev said the draft office head was in a critical hospital and that the detained shooter “will absolutely be punished.”
“Nobody is going to go anywhere,” the gunman shouted moments before opening fire.
The anti-Putin protesters have attacked several drafts offices since Putin declared a partial mobilization last Wednesday.
Over the last weekend, the media reported similar protests against the draft in Dagestan and Yakutia, both of which have supplied disproportionate numbers of soldiers for the war in Ukraine.