In late September 2024, Alexander, who had recently graduated from college with a degree in programming, received a draft notice. He did not want to serve: he says he had a negative view of the war, which began when he was still in school, and did not want to end up at the front.
Even so, Alexander went to the enlistment office, expecting to be declared unfit for service because of his health. He said he has asthma and coxitis of the hip joint, that is, arthritis, and that at age 16 his draft registration papers listed category G-1, meaning temporarily unfit.
“I was sure they would declare me unfit because of my illness. But they told me everything was fine and that I was fit,” Alexander says.
According to him, officials immediately suggested that he sign a contract, assuring him that “everything was fine”: he would serve in a unit and also receive money. Alexander first refused, but then, he says, he was made to understand that otherwise he could be sent for conscript service to the Belgorod or Kursk regions, where “things are very bad.”
He says he then asked again whether he would really remain in the unit and ultimately agreed. His decision was also influenced by the experience of a friend who, according to Alexander, was in a roughly similar situation, chose regular conscript service, was sent to a unit on the border in Belgorod Region, came under shelling, and nearly died.
Later, Alexander described the decision to become a contract soldier as “the worst” of his life. He says he regrets trusting the military’s promises that he would not be sent to war.
The deserter says that people are killed in war in any era, and that this is wrong regardless of the historical period. He also считает it unacceptable that this war is taking place after Russia attacked another country.