Russia hires militias to patrol occupied areas - watchdog

The Russians deploy "militias" to the temporarily occupied territories in southern Ukraine, claiming they are hired from among local residents.

This was reported by the Center for National Resistance, Ukrinform saw.

"The Kremlin is creating a parallel reality where they enjoy support on the ground and have a 'people's militia' in the temporarily occupied southern territories. The so-called volunteers in the ‘militia’ patrol settlements in the temporarily occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Their main task is not to fight crime, but to ensure that no one takes photos of the locations of the Russian armed forces," the message reads.

However, since the number of actual local "militias" is extremely small, the enemy is forming squads of "special military operation” veterans from the territories that had been occupied in 2014.

Those employed receive a salary and a social assistance package. Such "militia" are accommodated in apartments that the owners vacated precisely because of the Russian occupation.

"All these ‘volunteers’ are legitimate military targets," the report noted.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, 12 more judges were appointed to the "courts" in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including 10 from Russia.