Toy soldiers

Fresh out of high school, Russian teens are joining the army and heading to the front lines in Ukraine. Many are dying on their first mission.

For the past two and a half years, Russian children have been constantly exposed to propaganda narratives about the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both in school and through the media. Now, a generation shaped by the war is graduating high school and heading straight to the front lines. Many young men, at barely 18, are signing contracts with the army and being sent into battle after just two weeks of training. In the last two months alone, at least 13 of these young soldiers have died in combat, many on their very first mission. To find out what compels these young men to enlist, the independent outlet Holod spoke with the families of some of the youngest soldiers to lose their lives in Russia’s war. Meduza shares an English-language adaptation of the outlet’s reporting.

Georgy Nadeyin from Perm was only eight years old when his stepfather first went to fight in Donbas with Wagner Group in 2014. After serving in Ukraine, his stepfather was sent to Syria and then Africa. On Georgy’s 16th birthday, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and once again, his stepfather went off to war. Following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death and the disbandment of Wagner Group, his stepfather joined Chechnya’s Akhmat battalion.

Georgy celebrated his 18th birthday in February 2024. Less than a month later, he called his mother and told her that he’d signed a military contract. “All the guys are going,” he said. “What, am I the only one not cut out for it? I’ll grow up, wise up, become a man,” his mother Anastasia recounts.

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As a cadet at the Perm campus of the Volga State University of Water Transport, Georgy had a deferment from mandatory military service. According to his mother, his parents supported him and he wasn’t in need of money. “He had clothes, a good phone — everything,” she says. His decision to sign the contract came as a shock to her. She doesn’t know what influenced him, but she blames his friend Kostya, who signed up with him. “He egged Georgy on,” she says. “They dared each other, and off they went.”

On June 12, 2024, during yet another Russian assault near Avdiivka, Georgy was sent on his first combat mission. Four days later, on June 16, he was killed. His body has yet to be returned to his mother. She still hopes that he’s alive.

Their fathers’ footsteps

Russian state media often portrays the deaths of 18-year-old Ukrainian soldiers as a consequence of them “falling prey to Banderite propaganda” and heading to the front “without any prior military service.” Meanwhile, the Russian authorities are sending their own barely-of-age soldiers into war.

In the spring of 2023, as the war entered its second year, Vladimir Putin gave the green light for Russians to be deployed to the front directly after high school. Before, only those who had completed at least three months of compulsory military service or had received vocational training or higher education were eligible to sign a contract with the army. However, in April 2023, the State Duma quietly passed amendments removing these restrictions, allowing contracts to be signed without mandatory service or further education. By the end of June 2024, according to BBC News Russian, at least 40 Russians born in 2005 or 2006 had died in the war in Ukraine.

In recent months, losses among young contract soldiers have been rising. According to Holod’s calculations, at least 13 Russians aged 18 died between June 15 and August 15, 2024. When the full-scale war began, these young men were just 15 or 16 years old. Now, some of them, like Georgy, are following in their fathers’ footsteps. Russian media often use the stories of teenagers who followed their family members to the front as a way to promote contract service.

But Anastasia doesn’t believe her son went to war because of his stepfather’s example. “On the contrary, his stepfather tried to protect him,” she says. “Even if Georgy had told him he wanted to go, he would have found him a safer spot, because you can sit in the rear; he’s got plenty of friends [there who could help]. Why would a commander order an 18-year-old to go as an assault soldier? At 18, you can sit in the rear!”

‘You’re just sitting here’

Forty-year-old Anna Shkoda from Novosibirsk was waiting for her son Alexey to be released from prison. He’d been sent to juvenile detention as a minor. In October 2023, he turned 18, and six months later, he was transferred to an adult prison in the Novosibirsk region.

By that time, Alexey had only eight months left to serve. But instead of waiting out his sentence, he decided to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry and go to war. “I don’t know why — and I never will,” Anna says. “I asked my son, and he told me, ‘It’s my decision, Mom, try to understand.’”

On May 6, 2024, Alexey was moved from prison, and just 20 days later he went on his first combat mission. According to his mother, his entire training lasted only two weeks. On June 15, during his second mission, Alexey was killed. It was just four months before his 19th birthday.

Alexey isn’t the only former juvenile detainee who went to war just after reaching legal adulthood. Holod found at least one more who died at this age — Alexander Kovin from the town of Osinniki in the Kemerovo region. Two mothers of other detainees confirmed to Holod that he’d been in a juvenile detention center. He was buried on August 1, 2024. Like Alexey, Alexander was 18 years and eight months old. He went to war in the spring of 2024, shortly after being transferred to an adult prison.

Defense Ministry recruiters don’t visit juvenile detention centers where minors are held, according to the mother of one teenage detainee. Olga Romanova, the head of the prisoners’ rights organization Russia Behind Bars, also said she hasn’t heard of such recruitment efforts. “But they’re told during school classes and at roll calls: ‘Look at those soldiers fighting for their homeland, and you’re just sitting here,’” says the detainee’s mother. “And when they move to an adult prison, that’s when the real madness starts.” Her son, who still has a few years left on his sentence, is planning to go to war as soon as he turns 18 — despite the fact that a friend of his has already died in Ukraine.

‘I’m a man’

When Dmitry Sergeyev was 18, he wanted to marry his high school sweetheart. But to start a family, he needed money. Dmitry grew up in Cheremshanka, a village in the Tyumen region with a population of fewer than 500. He was raised by his grandmother, who recently passed away.

Dmitry graduated from an agricultural college, but without any experience, he struggled to find a job. A relative got him a position at his company, but the pay wasn’t enough. “He was tired of living in other people’s homes, especially since he wanted to get married,” says a family member. “But where was he supposed to find the money?” Dmitry decided to go to war. “He thought he’d come back in six months and get married,” his relative says. In January 2024, he was killed.

Yaroslav Lipavsky from Tyumen also wanted to escape poverty. He died a month after his 18th birthday. He’d hoped to earn enough money to support his pregnant girlfriend and help his mother pay off her debts, reported Agenstvo. Shortly after Yaroslav’s death, his girlfriend Yekaterina gave birth to their daughter, Violetta.

Dmitry Mezentsev (name changed) witnessed Georgy Nadeyin’s death during an assault. They were just 10 feet apart, hiding behind trees. “All sorts of shit started flying at us, and then the artillery opened fire,” Dmitry recalls. “A shell hit Georgy directly. I wanted to give him first aid, I kept calling out, ‘Georgy, Georgy,’ but it was already too late. Then they started aiming at me, so I had to fall back.” Dmitry is in the hospital now. “There was a chunk of flesh missing from my thigh and arm,” he says. “They stitched me up.”

He and Georgy were the same age; Dmitry also signed a contract right after turning 18. He says he knows many 18- and 19-year-olds who have gone to war in recent months, including five of his own friends. He decided to go to war because “things didn’t work out in civilian life.” Before signing a contract with the army, he finished ninth grade and worked at a convenience store. (He didn’t like the job; they wrote him up too often.)

Dmitry says his father has been fighting in Ukraine for nearly three years; he signed up at the very start of the full-scale war. When asked if his father’s actions influenced his decision, he replies, “I suppose you could say so.”

According to Dmitry, his father was angry when he found out his son had decided to follow in his footsteps. “He was like, ‘Where do you think you’re going, you stupid kid?’” Dmitry recounts. His mother also tried to talk him out of it. “So what? I’m a man. I have to make my own decisions, not listen to someone else,” Dmitry says.

When asked if he feels sorry for his mother, who has seen her husband and now her son go off to war, he says, “Yeah, I feel bad. But she’s still got my sisters. What am I supposed to do?”

Story by Masha Morozova for Holod