Shocking moment gunman shoots ‘dead’ conscription chief as fury erupts at Putin’s war draft ‘death sentence’
THIS is the shocking moment a gunman opened fire on a conscription chief as fury erupts at Vladimir Putin's call-up of 300,000 military reservists.
The suspect, named as Ruslan Zinin, 25, reportedly yelled "no one's going to fight" before he shot local military recruiter Aleksandr Yeliseyev four times.
Shocking footage of the incident showed a dozen men fleeing for their lives as Ruslan, dressed in camouflage, stormed the building and appeared to shoot Aleksandr from point blank range.
"We’re all going home now," Ruslan shouted as he opened fire in the conscription office in the Siberian city of Ust-Ilimsk.
Video showed Aleksandr being carried from the building and placed on to a stretcher.
Ukrainian authorities claimed he died after the shooting, while Russia said he's still fighting for his life in intensive care.
Read more on the Ukraine war
The Irkutsk regional governor, Igor Kobzev, said he was in hospital in a critical condition - and said the shooter "will absolutely be punished".
An eyewitness said Ruslan opened fire after Aleksandr gave a "clumsy" pep talk for the men to go and fight in Ukraine, reports.
Putin is attempting to scramble 300,000 extra soldiers to the Ukrainian frontline after announcing a partial mobilisation of Russian troops.
As the tyrant's calamitous war continues to falter with Moscow losing ground on the battlefield, the desperate despot has called up more conscripts to bolster efforts in Ukraine.
But many Russian men have been desperately looking for ways to avoid Putin's draft to stop themselves from being sent to die in Ukraine.
Men have reportedly been hastily getting married or registering themselves as carers for elderly children in a bid to get out of the war - with some reported to have broken their own arms to escape the draft.
And there have been huge tailbacks at the borders and a rush to buy flights out of Russia as men try to flee the Kremlin's grip.
Shocking footage even showed one man setting himself on fire at a railway station in Ryazan, 110 miles southeast of Moscow, to avoid being sent to the frontline.
Putin signed the decree on the partial mobilisation last week.
It is Russia's first such mobilisation since World War Two - signifying a major escalation of the war, now in its seventh month.
But recently-conscripted fighters in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine are said to be surrendering in their droves, and humiliating footage has emerged of drunken conscripts fighting each other as they were packed into school buses.
Rusted guns and 60-year-old tanks are being handed to demoralised conscripts who prefer to surrender than fight.
Mad Vlad's newly-mobilised recruits are being sent to the frontline with shoddy AK-47s that are either jammed or completely covered in rust.
Mobilised men are expected to receive just two weeks of training before being shipped off to Ukraine, compared to the six months minimum training which is usually provided.
At least 2,000 people have now been arrested for rising up against Putin's conscription.
Read More on The Sun
Putin has moved to crush protests by ramping up jail sentence for deserters to up to 10 years in a penal colony - and applied the new law to anyone refusing to "mobilise".
READ MORE SUN STORIES
He has signed amendments to the Criminal Code outlawing desertion and surrender with a sliding scale of new punishments.