Investigation finds at least 319 wounded Russian soldiers were sent back to combat before fully recovering

The independent Russian journalism project Veter has documented at least 319 cases since 2022 in which Russian soldiers were sent back to the front before completing rehabilitation from serious injuries.

In 218 cases, the soldiers had already returned to the combat zone, while the remainder involved plans or threats to redeploy them. More than 80 percent of the documented cases involved coercion.

One person profiled in the report, a man named Ivan from Yekaterinburg, signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in 2023. A year later, his leg was severely wounded by shrapnel. After surgery, he could walk only on crutches, but instead of continuing treatment, he was sent back to his unit. In March 2025, he was wounded a second time: shrapnel damaged his kidney and intestine, part of which had to be removed. A military medical commission declared him temporarily unfit for service.

He was later accused of abandoning his unit without authorisation, and a criminal case was opened against him. In December 2025, he was transferred to a reserve battalion in Yenakiieve and then, despite a referral for a medical review board, he was dispatched to the front near Pokrovsk. He later disappeared and is currently listed as missing.

A similar case involved a 32-year-old man named Daniil, who suffered fractures and damage to his spine and pelvis near Pokrovsk. Doctors also declared him temporarily unfit for service. In December 2025, military personnel took him from a temporary accommodation facility where he had arrived for his medical review. Within days, his family was told he was “back in the ranks”. By 7 January, he was also listed as missing.

Veter also documented cases involving entire groups of wounded soldiers. In August 2025, at least 14 soldiers from the Chelyabinsk region were sent on an assault operation near the village of Novoselivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. All of the men had been in the process of being discharged due to their injuries; among them, according to Veter, were soldiers with injured arms, others on crutches, and one with a metal plate in his skull.