Russian draftee killed after grenade launcher misfires

A newly drafted Russian soldier was killed during training after one of his comrades lost control of a grenade launcher, according to a report.

News outlet Ostorozhno Novosti (Attention News) said on its Telegram channel that the incident took place Monday at an artillery range near the town of Luga in the Leningrad region. The servicemen were divided into two groups, and one was practicing firing from anti-tank weapons while the others were testing automatic grenade launchers, Newsweek reports.

One of the soldiers from the second group "lost control of the grenade launcher and started firing in different directions," the report said. A shell hit a 37-year-old who was identified only as Dmitry S. He had been mobilized from the village of Borok in the Vologda region. "The soldier died on the spot from a head wound," Attention News said, adding that a military prosecutor's office and the police will investigate.

On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization for the war in Ukraine that was aimed at boosting troop numbers by about 300,000. Military bloggers and state television outlets have aired complaints about the process being botched, although Putin has not been blamed directly. A lack of equipment, training and pay for the recruits has added credence to reports of demoralized Russian troops.

In the weeks following the draft announcement, mobilized Russians have died in unexplained or unusual circumstances before arriving in Ukraine.

In the Sverdlovsk region, a draftee was killed after he choked on his vomit after drinking, according to the Telegram channel of news outlet It's My City. It said there have been four similar cases since the end of September.

In October, the body of a soldier was found on the site of the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School. News outlet Sibkray.ru said that, according to relatives, the man had died "as a result of violent actions."

Human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said in October that at least six newly drafted soldiers had died in the first couple of weeks of mobilization, including three at an army training center in Sverdlovsk.

On December 3, Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said it had discovered through intercepts that the Russian command was hiding the reasons behind the deaths of draftees "before a new wave of mobilization to prevent riots in the army."

Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War said this week that a growing number of Russian men mobilized to fight in Ukraine are rebelling, with hundreds detained recently for defying orders from their commanders.