Occupiers with severe injuries and disabilities are being sent en masse to lead assaults
Due to Vladimir Putin’s fear of launching a new wave of open mass mobilization—which in 2022 prompted hundreds of thousands of citizens to flee abroad—the Russian military leadership is resorting to brutal methods to replenish its manpower. Occupiers who have suffered severe injuries are forcibly returned to the front lines without proper medical care or rehabilitation, taken directly from their homes or hospitals.
Human rights activists and relatives of the occupiers describe numerous cases where incapacitated soldiers are thrown into meat grinders:
Pavlo Pidgrushnyi (38 years old). A former prisoner who signed a contract in 2023 for early release. After being hospitalized in the spring of 2024, he completely lost sight in his left eye and hearing in both ears due to ruptured eardrums. Despite being temporarily unfit for service, he was deliberately denied the necessary medical documents. He was later detained by the military, had his phone confiscated, and was sent back to the combat zone without any notice.
Mykhailo (an orphan raised in an orphanage). He sustained a critical eye injury three months after signing his contract. The Military Medical Commission (MMC) officially deemed the soldier—who was blind in one eye and had blurred vision in the other—fit for service and sent him to the front the very next day.
Andriy Perevalov (26 years old). A soldier who has been seriously wounded twice, suffering numerous shrapnel wounds, fractures, and paralysis of his right arm (“the arm is completely helpless and just hangs there”). Russian officers took him directly from his hospital bed and transported him to the front lines near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, where, despite his incapacitated condition, they ordered him to go on the attack.
Artem Shirokov (23 years old). He sustained severe shrapnel wounds to his arm, leg, and back in the Donetsk region. The command refused to hospitalize him, and since the soldier could move at least minimally, he was immediately sent on another assault.
Russian human rights activists emphasize that a systematic hunt for the wounded is underway in Russia. Officers visit the homes of soldiers discharged for medical reasons, throw them into guardhouses, or hold them in barracks without food or water until, under pressure, they sign a new contract and a document stating that the previous medical board’s conclusion of unfitness was allegedly a “forgery.”
In parallel with sending the disabled back to the front, the Kremlin is trying to recruit new cannon fodder from among civilians. Russian military commissariats are aggressively recruiting prisoners, homeless people, and individuals with alcohol addiction. To motivate them, Putin signed a decree fully writing off debts of up to 10 million rubles (about $137,000) for new recruits; however, as the occupiers themselves admit, the wounded are ultimately simply “squeezed dry to the last drop of blood,” with their bodies piling up on the front lines.
This is reported in an investigation by the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Russia may announce another mobilization this fall amid the difficult situation on the Ukrainian front, the failure of the winter-spring offensive, and significant losses. This was stated by State Duma Deputy Andrei Gurulov, who linked the possible decision to Russia’s military setbacks in the war against Ukraine.
A new mobilization in Russia could harm Moscow, according to intelligence reports.
