Recently it became known that the head of North Ossetia, Sergei Menyailo, instructed to track down conscript evaders on the border with South Ossetia. Now summonses will be served not only at the Upper Lars checkpoint, but also at the Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint, through which, it should be recalled, runs the only road connecting North Ossetia through the Roki tunnel with the occupied Tskhinvali region of Georgia.

"The situation at the exit from the republic has normalized, it has become routine - that's good, but the representative of the military registration and enlistment office should be there. Both at Upper Lars and Lower Zaramag. People are crossing the border and the border guards are returning those on their list who have been restricted from leaving the Russian Federation," said Sergei Menyailo.

For most Ossetian males this means one thing - they will be " trapped" at the border and sent to their deaths in Ukraine. Avoiding crossing the Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint is virtually unrealistic for most South Ossetians.

Under the conditions of occupation, poverty and complete arbitrariness of the separatist authorities most Ossetians of Tskhinvali region have moved to Vladikavkaz and other cities of North Ossetia. But they have to cross the border regularly, since many in the Tskhinvali region have homes, parents, often elderly people whom they need to visit regularly. Most residents of the Tskhinvali region also need to travel to Russia. Many have relatives there, they work in Vladikavkaz (it's difficult to find work in the occupied territories), have various affairs, just go shopping and they also have to cross the border. And as a result, these people will be "caught" and thrown into the Ukrainian war.

At the same time, even without mobilization, North Ossetia was in first place among the regions of the Russian Federation by the number of those killed in the war in Ukraine per 100 thousand men, surpassing even Dagestan and Buryatia (where losses were the highest among Russian regions, but the population of the republics greatly exceeded the population of North Ossetia). The so-called "South Ossetians" are almost the majority among Ossetians who have lost their lives in the Ukrainian war. These are either natives of Tskhivali region or Ossetians who moved to Russia from various regions of Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

According to member of the separatist so-called "parliament of republics of south Ossetia" of the first convocation Timur Tskhurbati more than a thousand South Ossetians are now fighting in Ukraine. At the same time more than a thousand have already gone through the Ukrainian war and either died, were wounded or defected in some way (in particular "by breaking their contract".  It turns out that at least 2-2.5 thousand Ossetians from Tskhinvali have already been thrown into the Ukrainian massacre.  

Even if we proceed from the fact that according to the separatists 35 thousand permanent residents of the republic live in the Tskhinvali region, this is more than 15% of the male population of conscription age. This is much more than what was fighting on the side of the separatists in Tskhinvali in August 2008. But that war, as we recall, was "five-day" war, while the war in Ukraine has been going on for 8 months and there is no end in sight.

Such involvement of Ossetians in the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine as "fodder" was in the conditions prior to the announcement of total mobilization (hypocritically called "partial") in Russia. What will happen now?

An urgent purge of the younger generation from the Ossetian people begins. After all, before that at least Ossetians who served under contract and had at least some military training were fighting and dying in Ukraine. Now, the Russian army command in Ukraine is throwing totally unprepared mobilised people "pulled out" of civilian life to "plug holes in the front". Not even providing them with normal weapons and uniforms.

In the end, the separatists themselves, those who until recently "fought" for so-called "independence" against Georgia and enthusiastically supported aggressive policy of the Kremlin against neighbouring countries, are sounding the alarm. So the same Timur Tskhurbati believes that the Kremlin's "governor" of North Ossetia Sergei Menyailo should reverse his decision.

"Let them do what they want in Lars, but "South Ossetia" must not be touched. Russian citizens do not take refuge in 'South Ossetia'. The republic is a dead-end, there is no road further from us, so there is no point for Russian citizens who do not live in South Ossetia to come to us. Measures initiated by Sergei Menyailo will only create problems for residents of "South Ossetia" who already overdo their civic duty towards Russia. We have more volunteers per capita than in any region of Russia" - said the separatist.

According to another separatist figure, member of the separatist "parliament" of the IV convocation Roland Kelekhsaev, the order of Sergei Menyailo may turn into a real hunt by the North Ossetian military command against inhabitants of so-called "South Ossetia" of conscription age. The thing is, he says, that most of them have Russian citizenship along with South Ossetian citizenship and registration on the territory of Russia. All of them, obtaining a residence registration, were automatically registered for military service. From the point of view of Russian legislation, all of them are Russian citizens, subject to conscription.

At the end of September there have already been similar cases when even an active officer of the separatist KGB who went for a weekend to Vladikavkaz was not allowed to leave Russia. After this incident the separatist so-called Defence Ministry and other "power structures" of the Tskhinvali regime recommended their employees to travel only on South Ossetian passports and to have service IDs with them. But in Russia the military registration and enlistment offices are well aware of such "tricks" and it is unlikely that Ossetians caught on the border will be able to avoid being sent to the slaughterhouse in Ukraine.

Sergei Menyailo himself does not really care about what will happen to Ossetian people. Sergei Menyailo himself has very little relation to Ossetians, although officially his mother is Ossetian, but he is a typical "servant of the Kremlin" who wants to serve their leaders.

Currently, many Ossetians of Tskhinvali region can find refuge from the "mobilization genocide" organized by the Kremlin by moving to unoccupied territory of Georgia, where they can receive or regain their real citizenship - Georgian citizenship, and get all rights of full citizenship.

Giorgi Mazniashvili