Russian man shoots draft commandant after telling him he’ll not fight in Ukraine

A Russian man has shot the head of the local military draft committee in a Siberian town after telling him he would not fight in the war in Ukraine.

The incident took place in the city of Ust-Ilimsk, a town of about 85,000 people in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

Video showed the gunman, dressed in camouflage, firing at the official from point blank range as other potential draftees for the Russian invasion fled the room. At least three shots were fired, according to reports.

There are conflicting reports about whether the commandant, who also heads the local draft board, has died. Video showed him being carried from the building and placed on a stretcher. He was not moving in the video.

The Irkutsk regional governor, Igor Kobzev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the draft office head was in critical condition and that the detained shooter will absolutely be punished. According to a witness, the man shot the military commandant after he had given a clumsy pep talk for the men to go and fight in Ukraine. Nobody is going to go anywhere, a witness told the Baikal People news agency.

It is the latest incident tied to Vladimir Putin's announcement of partial mobilisation that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Russian men receiving their call-up papers.

A half-dozen draft centres have been torched in arson attacks last week, and police made hundreds of arrests across the country in order to disperse local protests sparked by the announcement.