“I will secure a transfer specifically to a combat unit, where you will spend exactly three days” - Astra Press

Investigator forced a resident of Yekaterinburg, who was under criminal investigation, to go to war, despite his health problems.

27‑year‑old corporal Danila A. served under contract as an electrician driver in the support company of the Research Center for Biological Protection in Yekaterinburg. In 2024, he became a defendant in a case involving extortion: according to investigators, together with a fellow service member, he helped an acquaintance extort 500,000 rubles from a store employee. The investigator leading the case offered both military personnel a choice: to go to war as an infantryman, in which case the case would be suspended, or to end up in a pre‑trial detention center and a penal colony. The corporal recorded these conversations on his phone; the recordings are in ASTRA’s possession.

In March 2026, Danila was detained and sent to Rostov‑on‑Don; he never made it there, and the court, where he filed a lawsuit seeking to be discharged from service, suspended the case based on a certificate from his unit stating that he “is taking part in combat operations.” Documents from the Ministry of Defense itself refute this certificate.

In the interrogation recording, the investigator is trying to persuade the corporal and his fellow soldier to sign a contract. When the military men hired a representative, the investigator resorted to threats:

“I’ll push for your assignment, buddy. You’re military personnel; your consent to the transfer isn’t required. But I’ll only push for assignments to units where you won’t last long.”

And he named the destination:

“Just straight there, to the DPR, to a brigade, to Horlivka. To the most hopeless place.” “I will secure a transfer specifically to a combat‑ready unit, where you will spend exactly three days.”

If he doesn’t go, he promised he would end up in a pre‑trial detention center and a penal colony:

“In the penal colony, you’ll be put on the rack of justice within the first two days after being accepted.”

In the same recording, the investigator, together with a representative of the unit, discusses that neither the soldier’s health condition nor the need to undergo an attestation commission will prevent him from being sent to the front.

The corporal himself explains in the recording why he is refusing:

“I’m not going to go to the place where our command is sending us, because it’s the 25th Army — it’s just meat. I know, I have people serving there.”

A few weeks later, Danila A. wrote a confession — it was accepted by a criminal investigator from the military investigative department of the Investigative Committee for the Yekaterinburg garrison; the military man refused to have a lawyer. In the confession, he admits that he helped extort money, struck the victim in the stomach, and threatened him. Later, in the recording, he recants his confession: in response to the investigator’s remark “when did you extort money,” he replies “I didn’t extort it.” His mother believes the protocol is forged.

Based on the results of a colonoscopy at the military hospital of the Ministry of Defense, ulcerative colitis was detected, and Danila A. was declared “limitedly fit.” His service record contains no disciplinary actions, and he is described as follows: “Physically underdeveloped, complains about his health, regularly undergoes outpatient treatment.”

On October 31, 2025, the military man was issued tickets to his new place of service. On November 6, he personally submitted a complaint to the military prosecutor’s office of the Yekaterinburg garrison, stating that the transfer to the 37th Motorized Rifle Regiment had been carried out without his consent and without taking his diagnoses into account, and that the personnel file contained a report on the refusal to sign a contract that he had not signed. In the complaint, he indicated his address, place of service, and phone number. No substantive response followed, and in December he was declared wanted.

On March 24, 2026, he was detained by the military commandant’s office of Yekaterinburg and taken to a collection point for those who voluntarily left the unit in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. On March 30, he was airlifted to Rostov-on-Don — but, as follows from the letter from the Directorate of the RCBZ troops, not to a combat unit, but to military unit 78568 in the “LNR”, which in the same letter is named the same assembly point for the deserted. He didn’t arrive.

On April 2, the Yekaterinburg garrison military court suspended his claim for dismissal: the military unit reported that the corporal “departed for the zone of the special military operation and is taking part in it.”

Currently, Danila A. is on the wanted list; contact with him is irregular, and his whereabouts are unknown. The dismissal claim remains suspended.