MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. About 500 recruits from Crimea were drafted during the spring conscription, Evgeny Burdinsky of the General Headquarters said on Saturday.

"It was for the first time we drafted young men from Crimea. The task we had was to draft 485 people - now they all are sent to serve on the Crimean Peninsula, mostly in the Black Sea Navy," he said.

Recruits drafted during the upcoming autumn conscription will also serve on the peninsula, the representative said.

He was asked whether the military used different approaches to young men of different ethnic groups living on the Crimean Peninsula. "I would not hide it, yes, there are differences, and we were ready for them."

He said the draft commissions avoided problems as they were cooperating with leaders of the Crimean Tatars as well as due to assistance from authorities of Tatarstan.