Five Russian citizens who fled the country separately to avoid conscription are stuck at a South Korean airport after authorities in Seoul rejected their asylum applications, The Moscow Times reported.

Some of the Russians have been at Seoul’s Incheon International Airport for two months, among those who managed to leave Russia a little later after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization on September 21.

It will be recalled that the announcement of mobilization caused a real mass exodus from Russia: tickets for international flights were quickly sold out or sold out at astronomical prices after the speech in which the head of the Kremlin announced this measure.

The 5 men who managed to reach South Korea in the following months did not take into account that the law of this Asian country does not include fleeing from military mobilization as a basis for granting refugee status.

But the South Korean authorities are currently giving them 3 meals a day, the Korea Times newspaper reported, which published an extensive article on the situation.

What Russian “refugees” in South Korea say

Jashar Hubiev, a 31-year-old former soccer player from Naldzhik, the capital of the North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria, says he was lucky to escape Russia and avoid the fate of his acquaintances and friends who died in the war.

“Almost 400 Russian soldiers died near Makiivka. Two of them were my acquaintances. I’m still in shock,” he told the Korea Times, saying he would still not be eligible to register in Russia, but that “people from the military came to my house and made me sign a document that I would be considered a deserter if I won’t show up for military service for a few days.”

Another man in his 30s, who asked to be identified only as “Andrei,” said he is from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk and arrived in South Korea on October 14.

He claims to have been an “avid” opponent of Putin’s “corrupt” regime long before the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, and had no choice but to flee after being ordered to mobilize.

“I participated in many anti-government protests. Once, the police arrested me and beat me during an interrogation that lasted for hours. I had to have surgery because my chin and nose were broken,” he claims, explaining that he fled first to Kazakhstan and then to South Korea after rumors emerged that Astana would deport Russians fleeing mobilization. .

“I miss my wife and son very much. But I can’t go back to them yet. I hope Korea will help me stay here at least until the end of the war,” he told South Korean reporters.

The Russian men are still hoping to get asylum in Seoul

“Although I have nothing to do with South Korea, I knew that it is a very advanced country in terms of democracy and civil rights. The news that the former president (of South Korea) was sentenced to prison for corruption left me speechless. In Russia, we could not imagine a leader who was sent to trial,” says Volodymyr Maraktaev, a 23-year-old Russian from the Republic of Buryatia.

He said he fled the country by car to Mongolia immediately after the mobilization order was issued, along with other acquaintances, and later flew to the Philippines, where he stayed for several weeks before buying a new plane ticket to Seoul.

A lawyer representing the 5 men says he has filed an appeal against the Justice Department’s decision to reject their asylum claims and expects the case to go to trial later in January.

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