Russia admitted Wednesday that it had drafted people to fight in the war against Ukraine despite President Vladimir Putin’s insistence a day earlier that no conscripts or reservists had or would be deployed.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday an investigation was underway into the discrepancy and that Putin had ordered military prosecutors to punish officials responsible for disobeying his orders.
The ministry said some of the Russian conscripts served in supply units and had been taken prisoner by Ukraine’s army.
Ukrainian officials have released videos of captured Russian soldiers claiming they thought they were involved in training exercises only to be forced into participating in the invasion, which began almost two weeks ago, the New York Post reported.
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Concerns over Russians sent to fight without adequate training had been brought up last week by multiple associations of soldiers’ mothers, Reuters reported. There had been talk of a number of conscripts going incommunicado at the start of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The Russian army as well as the Kremlin had denied the rumors, calling it fake news, but were forced to admit their mistake.
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Russia’s Parliament passed a law last week prohibiting its citizens from intentionally spreading false statements about the war, attaching a 15-year punishment to the crime.
