“If we return to Russia, we will go to the front, without machine guns, in one direction.” The path of deserters from the front to freedom is 20 thousand kilometers long

The path of deserters from the front to freedom is 20 thousand kilometers long

Artyom and Semyon were born on Sakhalin, from there they were taken to the war: one was caught at the entrance with a summons on the first day of mobilization and taken to the military registration and enlistment office, the other was forced to sign a contract, threatening to “put him on the bottle.”

Now they live in Finland. Their journey from the war took more than 20 thousand kilometers, they passed through the whole of Russia twice: this is literally half the globe.

We found out at what cost they managed to save their lives.

Semyon and Artyom talked about months in assaults, salvation from a kamikaze drone, clearing fields with a stick in their hands, gas through the door peephole from the police, torture in a military prison, hitchhiking across Russia, meeting with Spiderman and a bear.

In this text you will find the most striking fragments of interviews with them. To find out the full story, watch the video on the YouTube channel of Novaya Gazeta Europe.

In the summer of 2024, Artyom came from his native Sakhalin to vacation in Vladivostok with his girlfriend.

One morning he and his friends went to have breakfast at an Asian restaurant.

— Criminal investigation officers arrived there to check documents. I didn’t have a residence permit in my passport. They took me and started driving me around the city, asking if there were any familiar places. Then I found out that these were places where their cars were stolen. They gave me documents to sign that I had stolen the car.

For several hours, he said, he was kept in the office. Then the beatings began.

“He says to me: “What do you know?” I say: “I don’t know anything.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and started beating me. He beat me for about thirty minutes. Then two more came in. They put me on the floor. One stepped on his back, the other pulled his arms.

Later, Artyom recalls, one of the employees took a bottle from the table.

- He took off my pants and wanted to shove a bottle up my ass. To which I tell him: “I’m ready to sign everything.” Well, that’s all, actually. I signed everything.

After that he was sent to a military unit.

“I didn’t even serve in military service.” I don't like the military at all. Why should I go to war? My dad is Ukrainian. I have a lot of relatives in Ukraine. There are brothers my age there. They called me and asked: “Where are you going? Kill your brothers? Well, what could I answer if I was forced?

Artyom’s unit was located in the Chubarevka area in the Zaporozhye region. They had to spend several days in positions. They eventually turned into 46.

— We came to a clearing, a forest belt, silence. Nobody says anything at all. And I ask the question: “What, who will go first?” And no one answers me, they just point guns at me and say: “Go away, fag.” Well, if you don’t go there, then, I think, they’ll kill their own people on the spot.

He still remembers his first steps across an open area.

— This gap was mined. There was a path there, it was necessary to follow the path. And I don’t even know how - I rushed all over this clearing, crawled, ran and never exploded.

The group was stuck in position for almost a month and a half.

“We couldn’t get out of there.” There was shelling. We were stuck there for 46 days. There wasn't a day when they didn't shoot. Didn't wash at all. My legs rotted - they were all yellow.

The shelling did not stop for a day.

— They shot from the AGS. “Baba Yaga” flew in - this copter is so big. Homemade bombs, kamikaze drones. It happened that ten kamikazes flew into the dugout per day.

- There were fewer and fewer of us. Every day you look at the boys, smoke with them. And then you realize that tomorrow someone will no longer be there. And you can be next too.

He especially remembered the fighter with the call sign Sausage.

— He stole sausage from the store. I don't think it's from a good life. I wanted to eat. He was forced to sign a contract. Now he is no longer there. The man was eighteen years old.

During one of the exits, his comrade with the call sign Luntik was blown up.

“I still don’t know how we got there and got back.” He ran after me. And it exploded. His leg was blown off. The boys then pulled him out under fire. We then transferred him to a wheelchair.

When asked about how attitudes toward death in war are changing, Artyom answers after a long pause:

“A person quickly gets used to everything. The first time you see corpses, you think about it. And then, when you walk and everything is strewn around, you don’t even look. Your thoughts are about something else. You're trying to survive. You don’t think about the fact that people around you are dead. You just don’t pay attention.”

Some tried to injure themselves on purpose in order to leave the front.

“An acquaintance told me: “If you want to leave completely, take a grenade, stick out your hand and just be left without a hand.” And so I sat with a grenade, probably five or six times. But I didn't have the courage. Not even courage. I thought: what kind of life is this without a hand? I wanted to live like an ordinary person. With arms and legs.

Fear did not disappear over time, but changed.

“I couldn’t sleep for the first days. Any arrival - you jump up. Then something explodes nearby, and you think: “Okay.” And then you sleep. You get used to it.

But some memories remain forever.

- The AGS fired at me. I was lying there, the earth was flying. And suddenly I remembered how I was going to first grade with my mother, with flowers. I don't know why. I just remembered. I felt every hair on my head.

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Artyom managed to get out of the front.

He had no intention of returning; for the first months he simply lived with his grandmother. Then the military police began looking for him.

“They call me and say: the police have arrived.” And I went to the store. If I had been at home, they would have taken me away.

Later, a friend warned him about a new raid.

- He says the military are walking around the village with weapons. I quickly got dressed and ran into the hill. I sat there for two hours. They searched everywhere. They even opened the freezers. The grandfather then laughed: “Has he decided to freeze?”

Another time, an acquaintance tried to turn him in.

— He called me to fry kebabs. I was hungry. Let's go. Ten minutes pass and the police arrive. Someone yells: “Run!” I ran to the hill, and the police were already standing there. One holds out his hand and says: “Pogorelov, give me your hand.” I turned around and ran back through the entire crowd.

Then there were other apartments and months of searching. The last address, Artyom believes, was determined by the police through a video surveillance system.

— I went out to throw out the trash. No mask. Met a neighbor. That's all. The camera took a picture of me.

He remembers the storming of the apartment every minute.

— They drilled a peephole into me and stuck a hose with some kind of gas in it. I tell the girl: “Go to the toilet.” We are sitting there, covering the cracks with a wet rag. Then I smoked, hugged the girl and realized that was it.

When he opened the door, security forces were standing outside with guns.

— I open the door, and they are standing with pistols. And one of them says to me: “What, were you running?” I answer him: “I want to live.”

After his arrest, Artyom was sent to a unit in Khomutovo. In essence, it was a prison for refuseniks.

“We set up a prison there at our own expense.” We bought grilles and paint. We were locked on the floor. There were about fifty to sixty people there at all times. Deserters, refuseniks, SOCHNIK.

Every week someone was sent back to the front.

- They call the name. If you don’t want to go, they handcuff you and send you away anyway.

Among the prisoners were wounded and disabled.

— People with swollen legs, with shrapnel. They don't want to fight. And we were forced to march, squat, and pluck grass in single file. We seemed to be fighting for our country, and our treatment was worse than that of animals.

It was there that Artyom met Semyon, the second guy with whom we managed to talk.

“I ask him: “What do you want from life?” He says: “I will run until my legs break.”

Thus a new escape plan was born.

The escape was a success: after that they hid for a month on Sakhalin, living in the forest.

— We had a one-person tent. When it rained, the two of us climbed into it and slept in the bushes. We lived like this for a month.

Then we reached the northern village of Pogibi. From there, local residents, representatives of a small indigenous people, helped them leave the island on a small boat across the strait. Thus began the journey across all of Russia. Along the way, they were deceived by intermediaries who took 700 thousand rubles, they were stopped by police, and once they even traveled with military contractors.

- I was lucky every day. In Ukraine I was lucky every day. Then in Russia I was lucky every day.

In Karelia, they prepared for several weeks to cross the border. We bought navigators, sleeping bags, and warm clothes. Then we walked through the forest for four days.

— We walked through the swamps. There is no bottom there at all. If it weren’t for the swamps, we would have walked for another week. And there were almost no reserves.

On the way we met a mother bear and her cubs.

“At first I thought they were dogs.” And then I realized what dogs were in the forest. The cubs came up to us, and the mother was running nearby. This was the worst thing.

When they finally saw the clearing that leads to the border, at first they didn’t even believe it.

— We saw a lake and some posts. Then we realized that it was already Finland. The fence was all rusty. We just stepped over and went.

Today Artyom says that the war was never his own.

— I live on Sakhalin. My home is there, my family is there. But Ukraine, Europe—it was all very far away. People were generally far from all this. Few people experienced any kind of patriotic enthusiasm.

When asked if he thought during the war that he would have to kill, he replies:

- I didn’t think about that at all. You don't think there. I got up, they told you to go. You have no thoughts at all. The girl asks me: “Have you thought about me?” I say: "No." Because the thoughts were completely different. How to get on skis from there. How to get out.

When asked why the military is so actively looking for those who escaped, Artyom says:

— Because they can’t take people from offices and send them. If they do this, people will again leave for Kazakhstan. Another two or four million people. Nobody wants to scare people. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense, if it has its claws in you, it will not let you go until you are zinc in the box.

Now Artyom and Semyon are receiving asylum in Finland, and the risk that they could end up in Russia again remains.

“If they return us, we will get 20–25 years in prison, unless we get to the front again.” But if this time we are sent on a mission, we will go without machine guns. One way.