Vladimir Maraktaev has clear ideas: “I will never take up arms to go and kill innocent people in Ukraine”. She tells the reporter about it The Korea Times that first last Monday he told his storyalong with that of four other Russians, all of whom fled the partial mobilization ordered by Putin for the war in Ukraine, and have been stranded for months, awaiting refugee status, at the Seoul-Incheon international airport.
Vladimir, reports the Eastern newspaper, celebrated New Year’s Eve in the arrivals hall of the international airport, 2000 kilometers from home. It was the first time the 23-year-old had spent New Year’s Eve alone without family and friends.
Instead of family gatherings and festive banquets, he bought himself a cup of coffee for 5,000 won (about 4 euros) – a luxury for Maraktaev that now he has only little money in his pockethaving spent nearly all of her savings traveling through three countries before arriving in Korea.
In the following days to tell other details of the story of the five refugees, is the Cnn, who interviews lawyer Lee Jong-chan. According to the lawyer, three of the Russian refugees arrived at the airport last October and two in November. After the rejection by the South Korean Ministry of Justice to theirs application for refugee statusthe five they found themselves stuck in the departure hall of the airportpending the appeal ruling.
«He is provided with one meal a daylunch, and for the rest of the day they live on muffins and fruit juice buying in the airport cafe. They can shower but must wash their clothes by hand and cannot leave the departure and duty-free areas,” Lee said. “They have limited access to medical care but no support for their mental health, which is important considering their precarious situation,” he added.
«I left home on the night of September 24th» continues Vladimir Maraktaev «a few hours after receiving the draft notice. I decided to leave as soon as possible because they could come and get me in the morning.’
“I find nothing to be ashamed of in defending my country. I would volunteer (to fight) if someone attacked us and endangered my loved ones,” Maraktaev said, adding that he had already completed one year’s mandatory military service in 2019. “But it’s a completely different story when my country he is the aggressor. I will never take up arms to go and kill innocent people in Ukraine.”
That night, Maraktaev jumped into a car with others from the neighborhood, also called to join the army. They have crossed the border into Mongolia and they continued on to the capital Ulaanbaatar. From there, Maraktaev flew to Manila in the Philippineswhere he was able to stay for several weeks.
He then bought a plane ticket to Incheon and landed on Korean soil on November 12, expecting the country to be a refuge from war.
A press release issued last month by a South Korean human rights group he asked the government to accept their applications on the basis that the five Russians refuse to become an “instrument of murder” and if they return home, “it is very likely that they will be arrested or forcibly conscripted”.
The Ministry of Justice of South Korea, a country where military service is compulsory, rejected their applications as “not worthy of assessment”, on the grounds that refusal of conscription “is not a ground for recognition of refugee status,” according to Lee. The lawyer, however, argues that the decision not to perform military service “should be recognized as a political motivation” considering the international condemnation of the war in Ukraine.
The five Russians they appealed against the decision and the sentence for three of them is expected on January 31st. The judge will have to decide if their case is “worthy of evaluation”. In the event of a ruling in their favour, the Ministry of Justice will have to examine their applications.