On June 19, it became known that mass raids on military registration and enlistment offices were taking place in Penza: men were arrested on the streets and in transport, forced to sign a contract and taken to the combat zone. The media wrote that the raids caused panic in the city. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Military Commissar in Penza He deniesWhich is not implemented at all. At the same time, it spread on social media videoIt was photographed near one of the military registration and enlistment offices in Penza. The photo shows a minibus carrying military men and men in civilian clothes. The women gathered around the minibus, crying and cursing the army and trying to prevent the bus from leaving. Mediazona spoke with one of the participants in this video. Her husband was in that minibus. Now he is already in Mariupol.
Tamara (name changed) lives in one of the cities of the Penza region. On the morning of June 16, her husband wanted to go to his elderly parents. At one of the stops, he was detained by people who got out of a car marked “FSSP” (Federal Bailiff Service). According to Tamara, they did not introduce themselves and took her husband to the local FSSP office to check if he had debts.
When it turned out that there were no debts, the bailiffs called a taxi and took the man to Penza. On the way, he was able to call his wife. “I say: Where are they taking you? Give someone the phone!” Naturally, none of them picked up the phone from him. They say: “To find out who you are.” He didn’t have a passport or anything. I say: On what basis do the bailiffs know your identity? Then they should take you to the police! Do you understand what’s going on?'” “He was like, ‘I understand what’s going on,'” Tamara said.
Her husband was able to tell her that in Penza he was transferred to the building of the military registration and enlistment office, after which communication with him was lost. Tamara’s brother, her godson, and his son arrived there, but at the entrance, she said, they were stopped by “two fronts.” A few hours later, Tamara herself arrived at the military registration and enlistment office, but she was not allowed in either. In addition to her, relatives of other detainees also gathered there.
“A person from Kamenka was arrested right at home – his wife was at work, and he was at home with his child. All this happened right before the child’s eyes. Another, from Kuznetsk, went to the passport office to register, and was told to go to the administration to ‘put a stamp’. He came and they took him under their white hands and took him away,” the woman told the stories of other detainees.
She did not see her husband until late in the evening. He said he was beaten and forced to sign a contract to participate in the war. In addition, . Tamara did not notice any signs of beating, but she saw that her husband was very afraid: “His eyes are like that… I have never seen him like that!”
As midnight approached, the detained men were taken out into the street under guard and placed in a white minivan. He was surrounded by loved ones. “They were loaded like prisoners! We got up [возле микроавтобуса]“We tell them: ‘We won’t let you in!’” Tamara says. One of them called the military police, but when the police arrived and spoke to the men, they said they had signed the contracts voluntarily.
Two hours later, the detainees were taken out of the minibus. The families were told that they would remain at the military registration and enlistment office until the morning. But the wives soon realized that they had been deceived: the detainees had been taken out of another entrance and taken away. On the evening of June 18, Tamara’s husband called her and told her that he was already in the annexed Mariupol. “He said, ‘We are already dressed and wearing shoes…’ and dictated the military unit number and the badge number,” the woman said while crying.