‘Body parts buried in a closed coffin’

Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin says three of his cellmates died fighting in Ukraine

In a social media post shared from prison, Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin writes that three of his cellmates went off to fight in Ukraine and died at the front. Yashin, who remained in Russia after Moscow began its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for speaking out against Russian atrocities in Bucha. He has been in the IK-3 penal colony, a prison in Russia’s western Smolensk region, since December 2022. He met the three men in question during his first weeks in IK-3 — before he was transferred to a high-security barracks.

Yashin’s first cellmate who decided to go off to war was born in Ukraine, near the city of Luhansk. He came of age when the Donbas War began in 2014, immediately joined a “militia,” and fought against Ukrainian forces in the battle of Debaltseve. This man ended up in prison a year ago on drug charges, Yashin says, and signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry immediately upon arriving at IK-3. “We had civil discussions, but we didn’t find common ground,” Yashin writes. “In his world view, Putin saved Donbas from Nazis and my arguments were like talking to a brick wall.”

The second had fought for Russia in Ukraine in 2023, as part of a tank brigade. He was imprisoned after being charged with rape while on leave. Though he claimed he was framed, the man decided to go back to the front. “During our conversations, he gave the impression of a completely reasonable person, not influenced by propaganda,” Yashin recalls. “On the contrary, he said, ‘I don’t really understand why we went into Ukraine.’” Allegedly, the man initially went to war in place of his son, who had been mobilized, having convinced military recruiters to let him join up instead.

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The third was a 23-year-old who ended up in prison “for stealing sausages” from grocery stores. Yashin describes this man as, “good-natured, trusting, [and] empty-headed” — an “easy target” for military recruiters. “Every night, I told him about the senselessness of this war,” Yashin says. The opposition figure believes he almost succeeded in convincing this cellmate not to go fight in Ukraine, but then the prison authorities transferred him to another barracks under “strict conditions of detention.”

All three men left for the front in March. According to Yashin, they “spent a week in training” and were then “thrown onto the front line” as assault troops. “They died in their very first battle,” Yashin writes, adding that all that remained of the 23-year-old was “body parts buried in a closed coffin.” “I know it’s stupid, but I’m still tormented with guilt because I didn’t have time to talk him out of it,” Yashin adds.

Russia began recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine in June 2022. Initially, convicts were recruited into the Wagner mercenary group, but in late September 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry began recruiting them directly. Up until 2024, inmates signed six-month military contracts and received a presidential pardon for taking part in combat. Now, the contracts are for a year and inmates aren’t guaranteed amnesty.