President Vladimir Putin said he supports a proposal to let volunteers with a medical fitness category of 'D' (unfit for military service) join regional units tasked with protecting facilities from Ukrainian drone attacks. The request was made by Yevgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent for state broadcaster VGTRK and the leader of the ruling United Russia party's election list, during a meeting with Putin.
Category 'D' is assigned to people with severe and irreversible health conditions, including blindness, deafness in both ears, and schizophrenia. It fully exempts a person from military service.
Poddubny said the request comes from wounded soldiers themselves. He clarified that the service would not be on the front line but in regional units, such as the BARS detachments tasked with sky defense and destroying drones.
"It's clear this is a severe category, but there are cases — people are capable of carrying out tasks... It's clear not everyone is. And it's clear there is simply a core of volunteers who, assessing their strength this way, very much ask as an exception to be allowed to serve in regional components that defend facilities from drones. Their own city, their own village, an enterprise," Poddubny said.
In response, Putin said: "Zhenya, I support this."