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Crimea and Sevastopol

Up to 5,000 Crimean residents to be drafted to Russian army in 2015 — Crimean head

Sergey Aksyonov said there will be no differences by ethnic origin, everyone will serve regardless of nationality, and equal conditions will be created for all

© ITAR-TASS/Yury Smityuk

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Poroshenko signs law to increase Ukrainian army strength to 250,000 servicemen

SIMFEROPOL, March 25. /TASS/. From 2,000 to 5,000 people will be drafted to the Russian armed forces from Crimea this year, the republic’s head Sergey Aksyonov said on his page in a social network.

Aksyonov said there will be no differences by ethnic origin. "Everyone will serve regardless of nationality, and equal conditions will be created for all," he said.

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, on Wednesday approved a law to establish special rules to be exempted from draft or get a deferment for residents of Crimea and Sevastopol.

The document states in particular that those who, in line with earlier effective Ukrainian laws on the peninsula, were exempted from military duty for health reasons, and those who served in the Ukrainian army will be exempted from service in Russia’s Armed Forces.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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