A top Russian ice hockey star has been forcibly enlisted in the Russian army and dragged off to fight in Ukraine.
Ivan Fedotov was poised to play in the US and will be ‘forced instead into Vladimir Putin ’s army’ which is at war with country.
The 25-year-old was rushed to an army enlistment office after being dramatically held by a squad of uniformed and plain-clothed police officers in St Petersburg.
He was accused of seeking to dodge the military draft and the move to enlist him has been seen as revenge for signing to play in the US for the Philadelphia Flyers.
Top goalkeeper Fedotov was formerly with CSKA - a club with close ties to the Russian army.
Fontanka news outlet reported he can now be sent to the Russian army rather than the US, but he might also be jailed.
Russian journalist Dmitry Navosha reported: “He has just been detained ‘for evading the army’”
Fedotov, who is 6ft 7 inches tall, “did not realise that [the USSR] is back”.
The player, who is the best keeper in the Kontinental Hockey League [KHL] which includes Russia and China, made public his intention to play in the NHL.
The operation to force him to enlist in Putin's army is seen as a deliberate attempt to thwart anyplans he had to play for the US side.
A video shows the moment he was detained at an ice arena in St Petersburg.
He was still at the enlistment office late at night before being taken to hospital in an ambulance.
A woman trying to get inside the ambulance - but seen being pushed back - was reportedly his mother.
Fedotov’s whereabouts are not now known.
The man in charge of Russian ice hockey is Roman Rotenberg, son of Putin’s close crony, oligarch Boris Rotenberg.
Both men are sanctioned by the US over their links to Putin, as is Roman’s uncle Arkady Rotenberg.
A source told Fontanka that the military prosecutor's office believed "there are sufficient grounds to consider Fedotov an army evader”.
Despite being born in Finland and raised in Russia, the fact he played for CSKA meant he was considered a military man, said one report.
Technically, all Russian males up to the age of 28 can be called up, though few sons of the elite serve in the army, and fewer still have been sent to fight in Ukraine.
Fedotov is the Russian national team goalie.
If he refuses to serve, he can face jail.
A source told Fontanka: “Nothing prevents even tomorrow sending hockey player Fedotov to the army.”
As a conscript, he should - in theory - not be sent to fight in what Putin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Yet there are accounts of conscripts - as young as 18 - being ordered to fight.
Among draftees in the war, there were dozens and perhaps hundreds on board the Moskva cruiser which was sunk in the Black Sea in April.
