Russians deserting the army often turn to their families for help — but in small communities, hiding can prove impossible
Some Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have been fleeing their units, leading to a record number of desertion and unauthorized absence cases in Russian courts in 2024. After escaping, these young men often try to hide with relatives. BBC News Russian shared four stories of soldiers who fled and attempted to evade capture — with varying degrees of success. Meduza summarizes their stories in English.
Stavropol Krai
Twenty-six-year-old Dmitry Seliginenko was mobilized in the fall of 2022. In January 2023, while at the front, he suffered frostbite on his chest and abdomen. Granted a 10-day leave, he returned home to the village of Urukhskaya in Stavropol Krai and underwent surgery. His relatives expected he would be sent to a military medical board and declared unfit for duty, but they told BBC News Russian that he wasn’t even given a medical examination.
Seliginenko didn’t return to his unit and was charged with desertion. In March 2023, a local police officer, who’d gone to school with him, spotted him on the street and tried to arrest him. However, Seliginenko managed to call his mother and stepfather.
A fight broke out between his stepfather and the officer, allowing Seliginenko to escape. Later, his mother and stepfather filed a complaint against the officer, accusing him of extortion, but the case was not pursued. However, the stepfather was charged with assaulting a police officer and, in March 2024, was fined 150,000 rubles ($1,618). Dmitry Seliginenko hasn’t been seen since.
Republic of Buryatia
In the summer of 2023, Vitaly Petrov, another mobilized soldier, escaped from a military hospital where he’d been sent due to severe headaches. His mother-in-law later claimed that people in his unit had been extorting money from him. Petrov hid from the army in the village of Sharaldai, but with officers actively searching for him, he couldn’t work. He spent most of his time living in the forest, gathering nuts and berries to sell and help support his family. Occasionally, he would come home to sleep.
In December 2023, police officers arrived at the family’s house saying they had “intelligence” suggesting there was a “hidden compartment in the basement, camouflaged with soil,” where Petrov might be hiding. His mother-in-law and children were at home at the time.
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According to Petrov’s mother-in-law, the police burst into the house without showing any identification. Under one of the shelves, they found a box covered with dirt where Petrov was hiding. The officers began beating him, pushing aside his mother-in-law and daughters when they tried to intervene. The woman allegedly threatened the officers with a knife and threw boiling water at one of them. (She claims she accidentally knocked over the kettle and didn’t touch the knife.)
Six months later, the court sided with the police and sentenced Petrov’s mother-in-law to two years in prison and a 100,000-ruble (1,072-dollar) fine for assaulting an officer. Petrov was sentenced to six years for unauthorized absence from his unit.
Zabaykalsky Krai
Roman Evdokimov was mobilized in October 2022 but fled his unit a few months later. He returned home to the village of Urlukskoye, near the Mongolian border, and hid at his mother-in-law’s place. A month later, he was arrested. According to the village official who pointed him out to military authorities, “he wasn’t really hiding.”
Evdokimov was sentenced to seven years in prison for desertion. After his sentencing, he chose to go to war after all — this time as a convict, rather than a mobilized soldier, in exchange for a pardon. In 2023, as BBC News Russian notes, convicts serving with Wagner Group had six-month contracts rather than indefinite terms, so Evdokimov was soon able to return home. The only document he received was a certificate of pardon; like many other former Wagner fighters, he didn’t get a military ID or a veteran’s certificate.
Now, Evdokimov lives in the forest, gathering nuts. According to his sister, the war left him mentally broken, and now he wants to go back. “He asked me, ‘Can I sign a contract?’ But I won’t let him. And he’s afraid to leave me because I’m so worried about him,” she told journalists.
Penza region
Alexander Galin’s nephew, who had been mobilized, fled his unit after serving at the front and sought refuge with his aunt and uncle in the town of Nikolsk, Penza region. One day, while drunk, the nephew began mocking Galin’s speech impediment, and a fight broke out between the two men.
The altercation spilled out onto the street, where Galin grabbed a bat and struck his nephew several times from behind, then went back inside and locked the door. The next morning, he found his nephew still lying on the porch, dried blood on his head. At first, Galin left him there, but eventually, he tried to call an ambulance. However, due to Galin’s speech impediment, the operator hung up, assuming the man was drunk.
In the end, it was actually the military prosecutor’s office that ended up saving the nephew’s life. Officers called Galin’s wife, who admitted her nephew was hiding at their house. A local officer arrived, called for an ambulance, and the injured man was hospitalized with a severe head injury.
In February 2024, Galin received a four-year suspended sentence for intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm — the court took into account the “illegality and immorality of the victim’s behavior” as a mitigating factor. Following the fight, the victim was diagnosed with epilepsy and memory problems. BBC News Russian was unable to determine whether he was discharged due to his injuries or prosecuted for desertion.