Russian Officials Ramp Up Police Presence Amid Growing Unrest—Kyiv

Russian officials are ramping up police presence in the far eastern Primorsky Krai region amid growing unrest over the war in Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Friday.

As part of its daily operational update on Facebook, the General Staff said officials in the region have been forced to introduce additional security measures and strengthen its police force.

In the city Vladivostok, authorities are preparing for possible anti-war protests, the update said.

Local residents are "expressing dissatisfaction over earlier mobilization measures and great losses of representatives of the region in the war in Ukraine," the General Staff said.

The reports come weeks after hundreds of Russian citizens were wrongfully drafted as part of Putin's partial mobilization decree in the region.

The governor of the region, Oleg Kozhemyako, said in October that hundreds of men had been drafted despite being ineligible, with roughly 600 mobilized residents of the region being sent home because of health problems or because they had more than four minor children.

He said that many had not informed military registration and enlistment offices about illnesses or changes in their family circumstances, and so had been called up.

Kozhemyako added at the time that 7,400 mobilized men from the region were undergoing training before being deployed in Ukraine.

Putin's conscription order supposedly applies to reservists and ex-military personnel with "certain military specialties and relevant experience." However, there have been multiple reports where men have been sent into battle despite failing to meet criteria set out by the Russian defense ministry.

Putin himself has been forced to acknowledge that "mistakes" were made in early mobilization efforts.

Security measures have been ramped up across Russia amid a surge in attacks on military registration and enlistment offices.

State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein announced on October 15 that Russia's National Guard had been deployed because of growing numbers of incidents in a number of cities, including Moscow.

"In connection with the increased attacks on military registration and enlistment offices, the Russian Guard has taken measures to protect them," Khinshtein wrote on his Telegram channel.

Khinshtein said authorities have been arresting those targeting enlistment offices, "for example, when trying to throw a Molotov cocktail," he said.

There have been attacks nationwide, including in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Ivanovo, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhnevartovsk, Ryazan, Sverdlovsk and Voronezh.

Government offices have also been set ablaze with Molotov cocktails in Tolyatti, a city on the Volga River in western Russia, in Lomonosov, which is part of St. Petersburg and in the city of Gai, in Russia's Orenburg region.

Newsweek has reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment.