Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree toughening penalties for voluntary surrender to enemy forces, desertion and refusal to fight by up to 10 years in prison, just days after ordering a partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine.
The move came on a day Moscow replaced its top logistics general after a series of setbacks to its seven-month war in Ukraine. “Army General Dmitry Bulgakov has been relieved of the post of deputy minister of defence” and will be replaced by Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, aged 60, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
