Shooting attack at Russian military training site kills 11

MOSCOW — Two men on Saturday fired at other troops at a Russian military firing range near Ukraine, killing 11 and wounding 15 others, before being slain themselves, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement that the shooting took place in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia that borders Ukraine. It said the two men from an unnamed ex-Soviet nation fired on volunteer soldiers during target practice and were killed by return fire.

The ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.

The shooting comes amid a hasty mobilization ordered by President Vladimir Putin to beef up Russian forces in Ukraine — a move that led to protests and caused tens of thousands to flee Russia.

Putin said Friday that more than 220,000 reservists already had been called up as part of an effort to recruit 300,000. He said he expects the mobilization to be completed in about two weeks.

Even though the Russian leader declared that only people who had recently served in the military will be subject to the call-up, activists and rights groups reported military conscription offices rounding up people without any army experience — some of whom were also unfit for service for medical reasons.

Some of the freshly called-up reservists posted videos showing them being forced to sleep on the floor or even outside and given rusty weapons before being sent to the front lines. Several mobilized reservists were reported to have died in combat in Ukraine last week, just days after they were drafted.

Authorities have acknowledged that the mobilization was often poorly organized and promised to improve the situation.

Putin ordered the call-up to bolster the fight along a 684-mile front line where Ukrainian counteroffensives have inflicted blows to Moscow's military prestige. The mobilization was troubled from the start, with confusion about who was eligible for the draft in a country where almost all men under age 65 are registered as reservists.

Opposition to the order was so strong that tens of thousands of men left Russia, and others protested in the streets. Critics were skeptical the draft would end in two weeks. They predicted only a pause to allow enlistment offices to process regular conscripts during Russia's annual fall draft for men ages 18 to 27, which was postponed from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1.

“Do not believe Putin about ‘two weeks.' Mobilization can only be canceled by his decree. No decree — no cancellation,” Vyacheslav Gimadi, an attorney for imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, wrote on Facebook.