<p>A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials said on Thursday.</p>.<p>The soldier, "not wanting to take part in a special military operation", did not report for duty in May 2022, said the press service for courts in the region of Bashkortostan in the southern Urals.</p>.<p>Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added.</p>.<p>Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years behind bars for evading military service during mobilisation for more than a month.</p>.<p>Russia announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September to buttress Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine.</p>.<p>The announcement triggered an exodus of men from Russia, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries including Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.</p>.<p>Critics say many mobilised men hardly had any battlefield experience and have received little training before being sent to the front.</p>.<p>Separately, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for "beating" an officer during an argument, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.</p>.<p>TASS said the soldier expressed "his dissatisfaction" with the training of mobilised servicemen outside Moscow.</p>.<p>While speaking, he blew cigarette smoke into an officer's face, who responded by pushing him away. The private then pushed the officer in the chest.</p>.<p>A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an "imitation".</p>
<p>A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials said on Thursday.</p>.<p>The soldier, "not wanting to take part in a special military operation", did not report for duty in May 2022, said the press service for courts in the region of Bashkortostan in the southern Urals.</p>.<p>Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added.</p>.<p>Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years behind bars for evading military service during mobilisation for more than a month.</p>.<p>Russia announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September to buttress Russian troops on the ground in Ukraine.</p>.<p>The announcement triggered an exodus of men from Russia, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries including Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.</p>.<p>Critics say many mobilised men hardly had any battlefield experience and have received little training before being sent to the front.</p>.<p>Separately, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for "beating" an officer during an argument, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.</p>.<p>TASS said the soldier expressed "his dissatisfaction" with the training of mobilised servicemen outside Moscow.</p>.<p>While speaking, he blew cigarette smoke into an officer's face, who responded by pushing him away. The private then pushed the officer in the chest.</p>.<p>A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an "imitation".</p>