Five years for enlisting. Kazakhstan prosecutes hundreds of citizens for fighting in Ukraine

Authorities in Kazakhstan have launched a mass crackdown on participants in the war in Ukraine. In 2025 alone, local security forces opened a record 700 criminal cases against citizens who enlisted in Russian military units.The courts make no distinction regarding where the accused served. They hand down identical sentences to fighters from the Wagner private military company and those who signed official contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. Under Kazakhstan’s Criminal code, all are viewed as having “carried out criminal intent” to participate in a foreign conflict.According to estimates by Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service, nearly 200 citizens or natives of Kazakhstan have been killed in the war. Until recently, authorities merely warned of criminal liability and cases were limited to dozens per year. However, in early 2025, following a leak of personal data belonging to alleged mercenaries, the situation shifted dramatically.Mediazona, in collaboration with the Goodbye, Weapons project, examined Kazakhstan judicial statistics and specific verdicts to determine how its citizens end up at war and how they are subsequently detained by local security forces.

Foreign mercenaries serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are a favourite topic of Russian propaganda. Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, regularly reports on criminal cases against them. Hundreds of verdicts have been issued in absentia, which translate into entries in the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted database.

At the same time, Russia actively seeks to attract citizens of other states to the war. Our database contains information on fatalities from 25 different countries.

Recruitment of citizens from post-Soviet republics is particularly aggressive due to the low language barrier, the significant number of ethnic Russians in neighbouring countries, and the large migrant population within Russia. Initially, such recruitment was conducted mainly through Wagner and other paramilitary organisations. Since autumn 2022, however, foreigners have also been invited to serve in the official Russian army. The law has been amended several times to expand its scope, adding new privileges such as the expedited acquisition of Russian citizenship.

Officially, Kazakhstan maintains a fairly neutral position regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev calls on the parties to negotiate and has declared a readiness to mediate. At the same time, Kazakh intelligence services consider the recruitment of citizens for the war, whether by Russia or Ukraine, a threat to national security.

“We are deeply concerned by the intensification of recruiters from both Russia and Ukraine. Therefore, special centres established here monitor all social networks and mass media around the clock to identify mercenaries and participants in armed conflicts outside the country,” Deutsche Welle quoted an anonymous employee of one of the special services as saying.

The lists and the authorities’ reaction

In April and July 2025, the Ukrainian state project “I Want to Live” published a list of 1,200 names of Kazakh citizens fighting, or having fought, against Ukraine on Russia’s side. The authors cited information from “their guys” within the Russian military command.

Officially, Kazakhstan reacted reluctantly to the publication. After the first list appeared, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Lepekha told journalists that the reliability of the figures was unknown and asked for a formal request to be submitted.

A month later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took a similar stance. First Deputy Minister Akan Rakhmetullin said that the ministry had not received official data on Kazakhstan citizens fighting in Ukraine.

However, it was precisely in 2025 that Kazakh courts accepted a record number of cases against mercenaries, according to data from the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, which was reviewed by Mediazona and Goodbye, Weapons.

Kazakhstan’s criminal code contains two articles used to prosecute participants in foreign wars. The first, Article 172, is relatively lenient. “Participation in armed conflicts or military operations on the territory of a foreign state” carries a sentence of up to nine years in prison. Article 170, “Mercenarism”, is more severe. Its third part, applicable if it is proven that the accused killed someone, allows for punishment up to life imprisonment. Those convicted under the “Mercenarism” article also face property confiscation.

The article on “Participation in armed conflicts” was introduced in 2014 against the backdrop of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Until February 2022, verdicts under both articles were rare, numbering no more than 50 combined. In the first years of the full-scale invasion, the situation remained largely unchanged, with courts receiving only dozens of cases per year.

The situation began to change in 2024, when security forces opened significantly more cases: 17 for “Mercenarism” and 166 for “Participation”. Finally, 2025 set records for criminal prosecution for participation in the Russia-Ukraine war, with 709 cases for “Participation” and 28 for “Mercenarism”.

Cases began appearing en masse in courts in 2025 as well, with just over 100 for participation and 12 for mercenarism. In total, throughout the war, 149 cases of participation and 30 cases against mercenaries have reached the courts.

Human rights activist Arthur Alkhastov, working with the Goodbye, Weapons project, provided Mediazona with 17 full texts of verdicts for participation in the war. These court decisions offer a glimpse into how the Russian recruitment system works and how former Russian army servicemen are detained by Kazakh security forces.

“Shifts” and defending Russians

15 of the 17 cases we obtained were considered under a simplified procedure, an analogue to a plea bargain where the defendant agrees with the charges. Another case was terminated in court due to the death of the suspect, and in one instance the defendant was relieved of responsibility and sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment.

In the verdicts, five served in Wagner, and 11 (including the deceased) served in the Russian Ministry of Defence or structures linked to it, such as the Redut PMC. The man sent for treatment did not manage to enlist; he was detained en route.

Service in Wagner is not in itself considered grounds for a sentence under the heavier article on mercenarism. All Wagner fighters, except one, were prosecuted under the same Article 172 as those who signed contracts with the Ministry of Defence.

All defendants known to us received real sentences. The standard sentence under Article 172 is 4.5 to 5 years in a penal colony. The sentence for mercenarism (Article 170) is stricter, at six years and eight months.

Future recruits from Kazakhstan are often drawn to Russia under the guise of rotational work (vakhta), then recruited there into contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defence or Wagner. Verdicts describe multiple cases of men who went to Russia for jobs, signed military contracts (sometimes after fraud or coercion), were wounded, deserted, and returned to Kazakhstan, where they were detained or turned themselves in.

Alexei Nevoya, 26, from Karaganda, saw a military ad on Avito marketplace while working in Novy Urengoy, served as a sniper, was wounded in January 2025, deserted, and was detained on return, likely after contacting the consulate for documents. Tofik Gariev, 46, from the Pavlodar region went for excavator work, instead signed an army contract after running out of money, was cheated and had his bank card blocked, then returned after a mine injury, spending heavily to get home. Konstantin Kozhakhmeto, 56, from Shemonaikha said he was forced to sign after being detained for migration violations and beaten; he later fled wounded, lived in Donetsk for months, crossed back illegally, and surrendered to Kazakhstan’s security services.

When defendants went directly from Kazakhstan to fight, verdicts often cite Russian propaganda influence (“under the influence of political information about the special military operation conducted by the Russian Federation”). Some cases frame ideology or personal motives: Alexander Goncharov joined Wagner citing pro-Russian views tied to family roots in Kharkiv; Maxim Malakhov said he sought combat experience and openly disclosed his service at the border.

Timur Praliev. Photo: VK

Legal qualification varies: one Wagner fighter, Alexei Shompolov, 36, was convicted for “mercenarism,” while a more “professional” case, Timur Praliev, 32, who fought in Ukraine and Mali, was still charged under “participation”.

Praliev was the only one of all the defendants known to us who managed to obtain Russian citizenship (without renouncing his Kazakh citizenship).

After Mali, Praliev tried to flee to the USA but was detained at the border with Mexico and deported to his homeland.

Problems with citizenship

“Respected Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am Miroshnichenko Pyotr Ilyich, born in 1983,” says a man in military uniform in a video, standing in front of a monument. “Ethnic Russian, citizen of Kazakhstan. In 2023, I made a firm decision to take part in the special military operation on the side of the Russian Federation in the struggle against the West on the territory of Ukraine.”

This appeal by a Redut PMC fighter was posted in February 2025 on the channel of Yuri Podolyaka, one of the largest pro-war bloggers.

Miroshnichenko asked Putin for Russian citizenship. The 42-year-old native of the Akmola region could not take the usual route. Back in 2023, during his first attempt to enlist in the army, his migration card expired, after which he was deported from Russia. The man then crossed the border illegally and went to Luhansk, where he signed a contract with Redut. Because of this, he was unable to legalise his status in Russia and needed to ask for help.

Miroshnichenko’s situation was covered not only by milbloggers but also by pro-government media. Kirill Kabanov, a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, commented on his case. “The story with Miroshnichenko’s documents will end in the near future, and he will be able to go to the [“special military operation”] zone again,” he said.

In the end, the story with Miroshnichenko’s documents ended with a verdict from the Kokshetau City Court. In September 2025, he received five years in a penal colony under Article 172 of the Criminal code.

In court, the man confirmed that he had asked Putin for a passport. However, when he learned of his HIV status and liver disease, he decided to return to his relatives and surrendered.

Illegal border crossing also prevented 42-year-old Ivan Strizhnev, a former Wagner fighter from the village of Priishimka, from obtaining Russian citizenship. He served under Yevgeny Prigozhin for only a few months. Shortly after his recruitment, the Wagner mutiny occurred, after which the Kazakhstani returned to his homeland. A year later, in 2024, he realised he could claim Russian citizenship. By that time, he had been banned from leaving Kazakhstan due to unpaid alimony debts.

Instead of paying off this debt, the man decided to cross the border illegally, doing so twice in both directions. It all ended with a conviction in Kazakhstan not only for participation in the war but also for illegal border crossing.

Other Central Asian countries

In July 2025, Vot Tak found that verdicts for participation in the war are also being handed down in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. At that time, journalists found 16 verdicts in Kyrgyzstan and 26 in Uzbekistan.

Recruitment schemes for citizens of these countries are similar. Arriving for work in Russia, they encounter advertisements for participation in the war and decide to take the risk for the sake of money or due to document problems. Cases of coercion into signing a contract are also mentioned in court verdicts in Uzbekistan.

editor: Dmitry Treschanin