This article from Medusa.io is in Russian, but I shall translate it.
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/03/26/otkazyvatsya-ubivat-lyudey-ne-prestuplenie
“To refuse killing people is not a crime”.
Twelve fighters of OMON (special purpose police units) refused to be sent to Ukraine and were fired. Now they took matters to court. The motivation? “It is not a war there, not an excessive situation, merely a “special operation”, as we were told” (in Russia one can’t call Ukraine invasion “a war”, it is just a “special operation”. So these young men refused to go, citing that the special operation gave them the choice).
“On March 24, Pavel Chikov, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora, said that 12 riot policemen of the Russian Guard from Krasnodar, who were on exercises in Crimea, refused to follow the commander’s order and did not go to war in Ukraine. After that, the National Guard was fired - however, they decided to challenge this decision and demand to reinstate them in the service through the courts. Their interests are represented by Krasnodar lawyer Mikhail Benyash. Meduza spoke to him about the case and its possible consequences.”
“When and under what conditions were your clients fired? - On February 25, my clients were going to be sent to the territory of Ukraine, but they refused to leave the territory of Crimea. The check has begun. On March 1, an order was received to terminate the contract due to non-fulfillment of the order. They [the National Guard] thought about it and decided to reinstate through court. In general, there are more laid-offs, but so far 12 people have contacted us. Do they have legal grounds to get reinstated? How obligatory for them to participate in the "special operation"?
If there was an armed conflict, an emergency or a martial law was introduced, terms of the contract could be changed without their consent for six months. But we don’t have an armed conflict or a war there at all, but simply a “special operation”. The law says nothing about it. You can go there, but only if you agree.”
- What a beauty.
- The authorities themselves started - by not calling it armed conflict. Which war you have chosen, that one you’ll receive. This means that consent is required from everyone who goes there, and it is not worth threatening him. And if this is still an armed conflict, question number two immediately arises: who started it? Oops. And no one wants to answer this question, because there is a completely different qualification of actions - and not [actions] of a warrior. Therefore, it will not be recognized as a developing armed conflict.
- What will put pressure on the refuseniks later?
- Publicity put more pressure on them. People have been wearing masks and helmets all their lives, and now they have gotten names and surnames. It is very traumatic for them. Despite the fact that they have done an act approved by part of society, another part verbally poisons them.
- That is, if you have cases of reinstatement, this may be a precedent, after which contract soldiers can massively refuse to participate in "special operations"?
“They are already refusing en masse. They just feared that it was unexpected. And now they will know that there are legal grounds for this.”