France to grant refugee status to deserters from Russian army

France can grant refugee status to Russian soldiers who refused to fight in Ukraine, according to the doctrine adopted by the National Court for the Right of Asylum (CNDA) on Thursday, which however rejected the request of a Russian citizen, whose elements were deemed insufficient.

“Russians fleeing mobilization for the war in Ukraine and those mobilized who have deserted can obtain refugee status,” the CNDA said in a statement.

A justified decision because “a Russian national called as part of this mobilization is likely to commit, directly or indirectly, war crimes”.

This doctrine, the first in France concerning deserters from the Russian army, is based on a European directive of December 13, 2011 and a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of February 26, 2015.

However, in the process, the Court rejected the asylum application of a Russian who presented himself as a deserter, considering “that the statements and the documents produced did not make it possible to establish that the applicant had been mobilized in the context of the war of Russia in Ukraine.”