Wounded Russian soldiers allegedly being sent back to front without doctor permission

According to independent news outlet Agentstvo, citing Valentina Melnikova, executive secretary of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, Russian servicemen with serious injuries are being sent back to combat zones without the permission of the military-medical commission.

According to her, since the beginning of the war, commanders have frequently sent soldiers to the front without going through the commission that assigns categories of fitness for service. Melnikova said there are “an unacceptable number of such cases.”

According to the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, two servicemen who were treated for two months after sustaining serious lung wounds were told by their commanders that they would not be sent to a medical commission, but to a combat zone. According to the secretary of the organization, several servicemen who received shrapnel wounds to their extremities were treated the same way, and the shrapnel was not removed. Also, ulcer patients and those who had had heart attacks or strokes before the war were returned to Ukraine after treatment.

They claim that in 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry prepared methodological guidelines for medical examinations during mobilization. Melnikova said the claim comes from a non-public document; Agentstvo could not confirm its existence from other sources. According to Melnikova, the document contains the following phrase: “The medical examination of citizens called up for military service under mobilization is to be conducted under column III of the schedule of diseases.” “And this is the column ‘officer,’ everyone is fit for service there,” she said.

Earlier this week, Olga Demicheva, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council and head of the organization Dr. Liza’s Fair Help, told RIA Novosti that hospital staff from Moscow and annexed Donetsk had complained about sending wounded soldiers to the front. “We learned of a situation in which fighters who had received high-tech medical care with recommendations for rehabilitation and follow-up care were sent straight to the front instead of rehabilitation,” Demicheva said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in March 2022 that wounded Russian soldiers would be paid a lump sum of 2,968,000 rubles (roughly $43,800) if they were found unfit for military service.