While Putin plays his letters in international negotiations that seek to end their invasion of Ukraine, young Russians barely entered the age of majority are deceived and mistreated so that they are going to the front while fulfilling the mandatory military service. War prisoners released by Ukraine believe they return home after years in captivity, but are sent back to the front line. Common prisoners denounce aggressions in Russian prisons to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
Kremlin's war machinery cannot stop and, on many occasions, exceeds the limit of legality to provide cannon meat to the assault units. Officers, police and officials are part of a system sponsored by the State that profiters by sending fellow citizens to an almost safe death. This is how it works.
“Hello, I am the mother of the Mijail Vévier recruit, which serves in the Sajalin region. Today my son has called me and told me that he is morally forced to sign a contract.” Thus began, on June 10, the Nightmare of Anastasia, which she tells herself in A video in which he asks for relief for his son.
“They allegedly found messages with a Kontraktniki (A contract soldier) in which he asked for pills, but he never paid him or received money in return, ”he follows. Next, three officers threatened him with three years in jail and sending him to an assault battalion formed by prisoners. Instead, if he enlisted the army, they guaranteed a position far from the fighting.
Anastasia, Interviewed by the independent environment Vioorstkaremember how at that time the world fell on him: “We were already preparing him with balloons and cakes, he lacked 17 days to finish military service, but when I heard about the contract, he did not want to live, he did not know where I did not know how to flee.”
Your case is no exception. In Russia the law prevents the boys who do the mili being sent to Ukraine. However, a year ago, the NGO Shkola Prizivnika (School of the recruit) received the first complaints of young people forced to enroll and now the practice is already systematic.
Seduction, threats and deceptions
Timoféi Vaskin, a lawyer who works with this entity, explains to Eldiario.es how this stratagema of abuse and coercion operates. As soon as the military service starts, recruits are tried to persuade themselves to enlist the armed forces with the promise of charging a good salary and having fixed schedules. “They are convinced that they will allocate to the military unit where they are already serving or the rear,” says the lawyer.
If they do not access, threats come into play. “They impose physical exercises until exhaustion,” says Vaskin, mistreat them almost to the extreme of torture, with the aim that they cannot bear the situation and, desperate, choose to sign the contract. Or, as in the case of Mikhail, “they prepare them a montage, a provocation, something illegal related to drugs” that forces them to choose between enlisting or ending equally on the front after passing through the prison.
The lawyer admits that the law “does not allow a person or force her to sign a contract”, but encourage her to do so is not prohibited. The illegal thing is to push it based on lies. The officers promise short contracts, but hide that the presidential mobilization decree allows them to extend them until Putin considers it appropriate.
The promise of a destination away from bullets and drones is also false, since commanders have the power to “transfer them to any other place without any problem,” says the lawyer. Even in some cases they are called to stamp their firm in papers, thinking that it is simply bureaucracy and, in reality, it is a contract with the army.
Anna regrets that her son Serguéi was embelstered by the false promises of her commander. “Why do I write to mothers? Because they are cheating on children!” He exclaims in Viorstka, and adds: “Do not let them sign contracts! Do not let them join the army! The commanders do not care, they are not their children.” Serguéi died in February demolished by a drone and burned alive. Meanwhile, Anastasia expects the stir of his son Mijail's case to help him return home safe and safely.
Desert, the last option
Russian human rights entities advise to avoid military service by all possible means. The least risky route is to ask for medical exemptions or postponements; The most radical are evasion and dropout. In case of ignoring the call, the consequence is the opening of a criminal case, a fine that can be paid in installments and, ultimately, the possibility of gaining time.
Free escape entails more dangerous. A recruit that managed to escape his unit after having enlisted under coercion and that he prefers to maintain anonymity explains to Eldiario.es his current situation. He is exiled in a neighboring country in Russia, but does not have papers and only has half a year left to illegally access the European Union, where he has family. If not, they are likely to deport it and send it to the front.
“I have no money, I have nothing. It is better not to get here because it is very difficult when you realize that you can never see family or friends again, and that you can never return to your homeland,” he warns. At the same time, he does not regret having fled: there were a few days left to send him to the front line. “Many of my former partners have died,” he says.
According to data from the Russian newspaper MediazonaAt the end of June, more than 20,000 Russian soldiers were being persecuted for having deserted the Ukraine Front. In April, Putin gave a green light to a call for 160,000 recruits between 18 and 30 years for military service, the largest since 2011.
From the Ukrainian prison to the front
Not even having spent years in a Ukrainian prison guarantees to be left out of illegal recruitment methods. The publicized exchanges of prisoners of war, the only thing agreed in the last conversations between Russia and Ukraine, hide an outcome that does not appear in the propaganda videos of the Russian Defense Ministry: in the images we only see shaped soldiers to zero, thin but smiling, with their flags tied to the neck, eager to meet his family.
But many of them are destined again in front. As confirmed to Eldiario.es the entity Idite Lésom (ID to the forest), which helps Russian soldiers to desert and surrender after being arrested, in recent weeks they have received requests for help from relatives of fighters released in the recent exchanges, the most numerous since the beginning of the war, with thousands of military by side.
“They arrived at an unknown place, they took the phones, all belongings, including crucifixes, chains and cards, and assigned guards. They never reached their units. Two days later, they were sent back to the front.” This is The story of a relative of a Russian war prisoner Freedom on March 19 and that has circulated on video through Russian Telegram channels.
“Our boys have gone through a hell in captivity,” he continues. “They have suffered numerous torture and abuse. Most have shrapnel wounds and bruises, fractures that healed without medical attention, one of them is missing a leg. Everyone needs medical attention and, finally, resting, but, although they are sick, they send them to the front,” he ends up saying.
It is common that, just after being released, soldiers must undergo an interrogation by the FSB, Russian secret services. They are then taken to the military unit where they are registered, which can be located near the front and, upon arrival, they are forced to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. From Idite Lésom they regret that “it is impossible to refuse” and that “often the documents are already delivered signed.”
Human rights organizations consider that this practice is inhuman because almost all exprisioneros of war suffer, at least, psychological sequelae that advise their return to the front line. The Geneva Convention also explicitly prohibits the use of former prisoners of war in active military service.
From the Russian prison in front
Russian army ranks also nourish in a significant proportion of common prisoners. Many of them register to the armed forces voluntarily, in order to commute their penalty, but in some regions the inmates who refuse to sign a military contract suffer from balls.
In the districts of Moscow, Volga and Siberia, prisons are half empty, As reported Radio Svobodabecause since autumn of 2024 the officials have increased the level of violence to force the inmates to fight Ukraine, denounces the medium.
“The police have gone completely crazy. During the last month, the beatings have become mandatory, like who queues to pass list. They are dragging everyone, without distinction,” a Volga ex -prisoner tells this medium.
Natalia, the mother of an inmate, says that since March her son has only called him once. In the Criminal Colony they took access to the phone and only allowed him to get in touch with his family after arriving at the front. “He told me that he would have died anyway: in jail or in the war. They scared him. He is not an idiot, but has succumbed to this animal fear,” he concludes.
Police do business
This change in attitude of the agents coincides with an increase in the bonuses they receive for each detainee signed by a contract with the Ministry of Defense, as publishes Vioorstka. Since the past fall, in St. Petersburg, for example, an investigator can earn 50,000 rubles (more than 500 euros) for delivering a arrested, while his monthly salary is between 40,000 and 60,000 rubles (between 400 and 600 euros).
According to medium sources, almost 12% of the suspects went to fight even before trial and investigation. Only in June was offered to war at 3,333 arrested from all over Russia, of which 392 accepted.
Another source ensures that this tactic is used to make up the crime rates. “It is a tool to get rid of the unpleasant elements that spoil our statistics. Two full -time police officers give 12 or 15 people a month,” he explains.
A federal judge complains Vioorstka that this process does not take into account victims, who are deprived of the right to any compensation. In addition, the researchers are pushed to close as soon as possible the file by sending the suspect to the front line instead of investigating in the case.
The political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann thus summarized him recently in Ekho FM: “Instead of the canonical phrase 'he has the right to remain silent and to call a lawyer', now they say 'he has the right to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense and then this nightmare will fade.”
