Russian recruits called up for military service bid farewell to their loved ones at a railway station in Omsk in November 2022.
In March 2022, just weeks after ordering the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “mothers, wives, sisters, and fiancées” that he would only send “professional military personnel” to what has now become the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II.
That promise was broken almost immediately, as young recruits were forced to sign military contracts almost immediately after graduation and sent to the front lines in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation.”
Three years later, Russian recruits continue to be sent to the front lines—and to die—after signing such contracts, according to their families and activists.
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“The Russian army finds it quite easy to recruit 18 and 19-year-olds,” said Artem Klyga, a lawyer from the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a Russian anti-war group, speaking to Radio Free Europe (RFE).
“These young soldiers are often encouraged to sign contracts to become professional soldiers, often without fully understanding what they are agreeing to,” Klyga added.
Before Russia begins its spring recruitment, which will start on April 1, the Russian-language media outlet Vyorstka reported that at least 25 recruits were killed in the Kursk region of Russia following a surprise Ukrainian attack there in August.
The average age of these recruits was 20, according to Vyorstka, which based this figure on an analysis of news reports and obituaries posted on social media. Many of their deaths were only made public in recent months.
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One of the Russian recruits killed in Kursk was 19-year-old Zakhar Sosnin, whose family told RFE that they had no information on how he ended up signing a military contract.
“We found out later. We still don’t understand why he signed it. They told us he ‘died in the battle for the Kursk region,’ and that’s it. He was just a child,” a relative said.
Klyga told RFE that Russian law technically forbids sending recruits to fight without at least four months of service. However, if they sign a contract, they can be sent immediately.
“Most of the time, they have no access to lawyers or human rights organizations—they simply have no choice,” he said.
In some cases, relatives have claimed that they are certain their recruited sons did not sign military contracts.
In October, some recruits from a Russian tank division received 305,000 rubles ($3,600) after allegedly signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense, RFE reported.
A mother of one of these recruits told RFE that her son had not signed any contract.
“We are horrified because we don’t want to fight,” she said.
“They are just children!”
The anxiety and anger of Russian recruits’ relatives regularly emerge.
Last month, the administration of the city of Verkhnyaya Salda, about 2,000 kilometers east of Moscow in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, paid tribute on social media to 19-year-old recruit Daniil Selyayev, informing followers that he was killed in battle in the Kursk region in November.
Under the post, which included a photo of Selyayev in his military uniform, commentators posted harsh reactions to his death. Authorities claimed he had died while distributing “humanitarian aid.”
“A recruit. And they said recruits wouldn’t be involved. Very, very sad for the boy,” wrote one person.
Another commentator said recruits are sent to the front after signing contracts or after serving for five months, provoking a strong response from another.
“This is not true! They are sending recruits there! We even have a Telegram group for mothers whose children are at the border. No one asks where they’re being sent after training,” they wrote.
“Why are recruits being sent to the special military operation?! They are just children! It is the state’s duty to bring them home alive and well,” wrote another.
While many Russian families are angered by the government’s broken promise to not send inexperienced young recruits to the front line, public resistance is rare due to harsh suppression by the Kremlin against opposition since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine, said Russian military analyst Yan Matveev to RFE.
Western official estimates for Russian casualties during the three-year occupation of Ukraine exceed 600,000.
Aleksandr Bastrykin, head of Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee, said this month that since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, his agency has launched 615 criminal cases involving charges of “discrediting” or spreading “fake news” about the Russian military—controversial statutes that the Russian government has used to silence critics.
“The power of repression within the country is enormous, and security forces, along with the courts, harshly suppress any active dissent,” said Matveev.
Russian losses—dead or wounded—have exceeded 700,000, according to Western estimates by December. An analysis by the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least 172,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, and 611,000 have been wounded, more than half of them severely and incapable of fighting again.
