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Those from the area’s Yakut and Buryat ethnic communities complain of racism and oppression in Russia, which has driven some activist calls for independence.

According to Yekaterina Morland, an ethnic Buryat volunteer at the Asians of Russia Foundation, Buryatia has seen mobilization rates up to six times higher than Russia’s European regions.

"The Buryat Mongols, Tuva Mongols, and Kalmyk Mongols have ... been used as nothing more than cannon fodder," he said in a video message, wearing a ribbon in Ukrainian yellow-and-blue, and referring to three Mongol ethnic groups in Russia.

Eventually, a serviceman she believed to be an ethnic Buryat from Siberia offered to let her speak to someone he said knew the full story.

“Right now in Ukraine, the fate of our country, the fate of all of Russia and its future are being decided,” he said on March 12 after four Buryat paratroopers had been awarded posthumous medals.