‘They’re treating us like we’re idiots’

Families are searching for Russian conscripts who disappeared during the Ukrainian incursion. The Defense Ministry insists they were never there.

On August 9, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry declared a federal-level emergency in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces had already been advancing for four days. Anywhere from several dozen to several hundred non-mobilized conscripts may have been in the region when Ukrainian troops crossed the border. Journalists from the independent outlet Verstka spoke with the families of seven conscripts serving near the city of Sudzha to learn the fates of these young men who, according to Russian law, should be stationed “outside of the conflict zone.” Meduza shares an English-language translation of their findings.

On August 5, Dilyuza’s brother called to say that commanders were confiscating their phones because they were “expecting an inspection.” Dilyuza, who’s from Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan, told Verstka that her brother and other non-mobilized conscripts were sent to Sudzha in May 2024 after completing training in Nizhny Novgorod. According to her, he was assigned to Military Unit No. 12721 in the Bryansk region. At his post in the Sudzhansky district (the area around Sudzha), there were around 25 to 30 conscripts and contract soldiers.

“No matter how much they asked to be moved to a safer location, it was all just empty promises. On August 5, he called and said that on August 6, they were finally going to be evacuated,” Dilyuza said. She doesn’t know whether that actually happened — she hasn’t heard from her brother since.

Yekaterina, Irina, and Svetlana lost contact with their sons, who were also stationed in Sudzha as conscripts, several days ago. At 7:52 p.m. local time on August 6, Svetlana’s son texted her to say that he was being sent into combat. “We’re the last ones left,” he wrote. “The others have already gone in as reinforcements. Some were wounded.”

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Yevgenia from Novoaltaysk last heard from her nephew, who was conscripted in the fall of 2023, on August 7. He’d been sent to Sudzha in May or June 2024. When the Ukrainian army began shelling Russian positions in the Kursk region, he managed to let his family know that he was alive and hadn’t been captured, but he mentioned that “many conscripts [had been] taken prisoner.”

Yevgenia’s nephew was stationed with 30 other conscripts. When she last spoke to him, he said those who weren’t killed or captured were awaiting evacuation. “They’re waiting in a safe place, if you can even call it that,” she says. “There’s nowhere safe there. Civilians are still being evacuated by ordinary, good people. Some are getting out on their own. It’s a disgrace. And no one is even thinking about the conscripts.”

Yana, a volunteer providing meals to soldiers at the border in the Kursk region, told Verstka that she was in contact with a number of conscripts and that some were indeed being evacuated. However, she added, “their fates vary.”

‘We can’t get through’

Yulia lives in Syktyvkar, the capital of Russia’s Komi Republic. Her son was conscripted in December 2023 and sent to the Sudzhansky district in April 2024. The last message she received from him was at 10:00 p.m. on August 5. Yulia says her son “wasn’t allowed” to share much, but he tried to write every day and mentioned that lately, they’d been regularly shooting down “birds” — Ukrainian reconnaissance drones.

Yulia doesn’t know what happened to her son, but she learned from other mothers that when Ukrainian troops crossed the border into the Kursk region, conscripts were “holding the line,” and many were captured.

“When [the village of] Guevo was captured, the boys who were surrounded texted their mothers, begging for help. But we can’t get through to [the Defense Ministry hotline in] Moscow at all. The enlistment offices just tell us, ‘What nonsense are you talking about? They’re not there, their phones were just taken away.’ Basically, they’re treating us like we’re idiots. The hospital in Kursk won’t give us any information; they say they don’t have time, there are too many wounded,” Yulia says.

Ksenia from Orenburg told Verstka that her 20-year-old son Daniil managed to stay in touch with her as the incursion was unfolding and is now in a hospital in Kursk. Daniil was conscripted for compulsory military service in November 2023, completed his training in Russia’s Vladimir region, and was then transferred in May 2024 — first to the Bryansk region and later to Sudzha.

On August 6, Daniil texted his mother to say the Ukrainian army had begun shelling their position. According to screenshots of their conversation obtained by Verstka, Daniil also said he and three other conscripts were supposed to be transferred to the Russian–Ukrainian border temporarily. “It’s even worse there; they’ve blown everything to hell, and now they want to send us there for holding. The bunker with all the supplies and weapons burned down, and they still want to send us,” he wrote.

Daniil was evacuated after coming under friendly fire in “some abandoned factory,” Ksenia told Verstka. “There was no electricity. Some soldiers came in and started shooting, thinking they were Ukrainians,” she recounts. “They ran from the factory and then stumbled into some other guys from a different company, who got them out. It turned out it was our own troops, firing into the air. They thought there were Ukes there. He hurt his hand badly while running, so now he’s in the hospital.”

Ksenia says her son texted her from the hospital to say that all the conscripts evacuated with him survived. “But those who were closer [to the border] were either killed or captured,” her son told her. Ksenia says she’s grateful that “God spared” her son from combat, but she’s outraged that the conscripts ended up so close to the border right before the Ukrainian operation.

“What, intelligence didn’t know that equipment was being gathered there? This isn’t just an escalation of the conflict — it’s an invasion of Russian territory. On [August] 6, when they were shelled all night, they briefly mentioned on TV that 26 drones had been shot down. But as for everything else that was raining down on them — silence,” she says.

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Yana, the volunteer feeding Russian soldiers at the border, told Verstka there were at least 15 Russian military positions near Sudzha and almost all of them had conscripts stationed there. The family members Verstka interviewed say there were many strongholds in the Sudzhansky district, each with between seven to 30 conscripts.

According to Yulia, 52 relatives of conscript soldiers stationed near Sudzha have banded together to try to gather information about their loved ones and reach out to the Russian Defense Ministry.

A contract soldier who served in the Kursk region from March to May 2024 told Verstka that there were several companies of conscripts stationed along the Russian-Ukrainian border: “The guys were fresh out of training. Some were even from Moscow, while others were from some godforsaken shithole.” In addition to the conscripts, he added, there were also border troops and fighters from Chechnya’s Akhmat battalion stationed near Sudzha.