On March 8, 2022, two weeks after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin claimed that Russian conscripts were not participating in combat operations. Already on April 13, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the "Moskva" cruiser, which was shelling the Odesa coast and on which, as journalists later found out, there were conscripts. Despite this, the Kremlin did not recognize the mass sending of conscript soldiers to the war against Ukraine.
On March 16, 2024, during the third year of the full-scale war, the then Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, announced an order to withdraw "units staffed with conscripts from the state border line to the second and third echelons". The conscripts were to be replaced by contract soldiers and volunteers. However, as the Kursk operation showed, this had not been done.
There is still no exact information on how many conscripts of the enemy army were in Kursk region, and how many of them were captured, died, or went missing. The Suspilne investigative editorial office undertook own calculations based on the information from open sources to once again demonstrate how the Russian military-political command deceives its own citizens.
How many conscript soldiers were sent to Kursk region
This year, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that 150,000 conscripts were recruited into the Russian army during the spring draft. The officials stressed that they would not be involved in "fulfilling the tasks of the special military operation", that is, in participating in the war.
However, the Russian legislation provides for such involvement. According to Grigory Sverdlin, the founder of the "Go by the Forest" project that helps Russians avoid mobilization, a conscript soldier can be sent to combat operations under two conditions: he has served at least four months and has completed training in a certain military specialty.
With the beginning of the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Kursk region (from August 6, 2024), conscripted soldiers, who were drafted this spring and found themselves in the combat zone, began to contact the hotline of the project. The breakthrough of the Ukrainian forces took hundreds of them aback in Kursk region, in particular in the town of Sudzha. On August 12, six days after the beginning of the Ukrainian operation, acting regional governor Aleksey Smirnov said at a meeting with Putin that the authorities did not know the fate of more than two thousand people, including locals and conscripts.
In an interview to NBC News, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 600 Russian soldiers were captured during the Kursk operation. Among them, there were hundreds of conscripts.
However, instead of withdrawing conscripts, the Russian authorities did the opposite. According to the Russian human rights organization "Conscript School", conscript soldiers from ten regions of the Russian Federation, as well as from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Buryatia were sent to the region bordering Ukraine in August — already after the start of the Kursk operation.
The parents of conscripts claimed that their sons had not completed the full guaranteed four-month training program. In addition, Russian human rights activists reported that conscripts were encouraged to sign contracts to be sent to Kursk.
On August 14, the relatives of conscripts from the 488th regiment appealed to the president of the Russian Federation on the website for posting petitions change.org:
"We, the parents of the military personnel conscripted for military service, whose sons guard the state border of Kursk region — military unit 12721, 488th regiment, 15th, 17th, 18th battalions. We do not know anything about the fate of our children, with most of them the communication was lost on August 5 and 6, 2024. We have addressed the Ministry of Defense, the military commissariats at the place of residence, the hotline of the unit, but we have not received any information."
On the Internet, most videos with prisoners of war in Kursk region are from this military unit.
There are complaints from the relatives of conscripts from different cities. We came across information that 250 conscripts were transferred to Kursk from a military unit in Leningrad region.
Russian lawyer Regina Ivshina claims that her civil rights group has received appeals from relatives of conscripts from at least ten military units, which may indicate the sending of more than 1,000 conscript soldiers of the Russian Federation to defend Kursk region.
"At least one thousand conscripts were definitely sent to Kursk: 250 from St. Petersburg, 100 from Moscow, hundreds more from Rostov, Sverdlovsk, and Altai. This is the smallest possible number. Obviously, the number is bigger," said the press secretary of the Russian project "Go by the Forest" Ivan Chuvilyaev in a comment for "Financial Times".
Russian military units that took part in fighting in Kursk region
The Telegraph explains that the purpose of the raid of the Ukrainian forces in Kursk region was the need for an immediate strike against the weak defense of the Russian armed forces, a preventive action against the opening of a new front in Sumy region, as well as replenishment of the POW swap fund.
According to the BBC, a significant number of the captured conscripts served in the already mentioned 488th motorized regiment stationed in Klintsy, Bryansk region. "SkyNews" analyst Michael Clarke claimed that while the soldiers of this regiment were trying to escape from the Ukrainian offensive, the Kadyrov soldiers (the Chechen special forces regiment "Akhmat") opened fire at them to stop the waves of desertions.
During the Security Service of Ukraine raid in Sudzha, 102 soldiers from the 488th regiment and "Akhmat" were taken prisoners. Most of them were conscripts.
According to the Russian publication "Verstka", dozens of conscripts in Kursk region served in military units No. 12721 (488th motorized regiment) and No. 91704 (254th motorized regiment). They began to be sent to the border with Ukraine in May.
In addition, "Ostrozhno, novosti" Telegram channel reported on August 13, citing the relatives of the military personnel, that the conscripts from the 80th motorized division were to be sent to Kursk region.
The same information was spread by the Russian publication "Meduza", which works from abroad. The relatives of the military complained that the command violated Putin’s words that conscripts would not be sent to the combat zone.
Approximate losses
At the end of August 2024, the Russian "Mediazone" wrote about the death of at least 172 conscript soldiers of the Russian Federation during the entire period of the full-scale war in Ukraine. This, the publication noted, did not take into account the losses in Kursk region
The Russian side does not make public information about the losses in Kursk region. The Suspilne investigative editorial office found confirmation of six killed Russian conscripts in messages on the social and mass media of the Russian Federation.
They are 22-year-old Nikita Dobrynin from Pechory, Komi Republic, 21-year-old Zakhar Sosnin from the Nikolayevskoye, Zabaykalsky Krai, 21-year-old Ruslan Gaynullin from Raduzhnoye, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, 18-year-old Daniil Rubtsov from Vologda, 22-year-old Artyom Dobrodumsky from Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov region, and 19-year-old Ruslan Gelyazhev from Akhtubinsk, Astrakhan region.
According to the BBC journalists’ estimates, from the beginning of the Ukrainian offensive to the end of August, at least 81 conscripts of the Russian Federation went missing in Kursk region.
According to The Independent, in total, the Ukrainian forces took prisoners of war more than two thousand Russian soldiers in Kursk region. Among them, there were at least 250 conscripts, Russian mass media reported.
Why Russian conscript POWs are important for Ukraine
The Kursk operation of the Defense Forces of Ukraine became a unique phenomenon during the whole period of the full-scale Russian invasion. In particular, because of it, three large POW swaps between Russia and Ukraine took place almost immediately. Among the released Ukrainian military, there were 43 soldiers of the "Azov" regiment, who were captured after the battles for Mariupol in 2022.
On August 24, Ukraine and Russia held the first POW swap after the beginning of the offensive in Kursk region in the "115 for 115" format. The exchanged Russian servicemen were conscripts, Tatyana Moskalkova, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, told Interfax. At the request of the Russian "Novaya Gazeta", State Duma deputy Shamsail Saraliev reported that all returned military served on the border in Kursk region.
The Russian publication "Important stories" estimated that at least 19 Russian conscripts remained in captivity in Ukraine after that exchange. Another 66 conscripts are considered missing. Taking into account those who were captured, killed, wounded and missing, the publication claims that Russia lost about 250 conscripts in the battles near Kursk.
On September 14, Russia and Ukraine held the "103 for 103" POW swap. The Russian military, who were captured in Kursk area, would be sent for treatment and rehabilitation, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced.
However, as "Verstka" reports, based on the words of the mother of one of the exchanged conscripts, the soldiers are going to be returned to their military units. The son called her and said that the group was being taken to Moscow, and then they expected to be returned to the military unit in Klintsy, Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.
This article was funded by the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.