Russia OKs alternative civil service for mobilized believer

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Russia has affirmed the right of a man mobilized to fight in Ukraine to instead do alternative civil service, setting a precedent that could empower more reluctant draftees to try and get out of military service. The Leningrad Regional Court upheld a ruling of a lower court on Thursday that deemed the drafting of Pavel Mushumansky unlawful and affirmed his right for alternative civil service on grounds of his religious beliefs, Mushumansky’s lawyer Alexander Peredruk reported. Peredruk told The Associated Press in a phone interview that it is the first such court ruling in Russia since the mobilization began last September, amid Moscow’s increasingly bogged-down operation in Ukraine.