Russian Officer Suspended After Thousands "Mistakenly" Summoned To Fight War

Vladimir Putin on September 21 ordered a mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight in Ukraine, sparking protests and an exodus of eligible men from the country.

An enlistment officer in a far eastern Russian region has been suspended after thousands of people were mistakenly called up to fight in Ukraine, a local official said on Monday.

"The military commissar of the Khabarovsk region, Yuri Laiko, has been suspended. This will have no impact on the fulfilment of the tasks that the president has set for us," the region's governor, Mikhail Degtyaryov, said in a Telegram video.

He did not specify the reason for the dismissal but mentioned a series of mistakes in the recruitment process.

"Out of several thousand of our compatriots who had received a summons and arrived at military enlistment offices in the past 10 days, around half were sent back home for failing to meet the selection criteria," Degtyaryov said.