Russia’s Defense Ministry is increasingly assigning dead servicemen the status of having left their unit without authorization, or AWOL, according to United Russia State Duma deputy Vladimir Samokish. He spoke about the issue after being contacted by the wife of a soldier missing in the war against Ukraine.
The woman said her husband had told the family he was being sent on a combat mission and then stopped communicating. A month later, she received an order from the unit commander stating that the serviceman had been given AWOL status.
“Such a status for a soldier not only implies betrayal and a violation of military duty, but also deprives the family of the possibility of receiving salary payments. And in families with minor children, the financial issue is especially acute,” Samokish said.
The deputy also said that recently more relatives of servicemen have been contacting him because of long delays in receiving payments after a soldier’s death. According to him, this may be caused by difficulties in processing documents, determining the recipients, as well as by the “poor administrative handling of military units.”
In 2026, the families of dead Russian servicemen, the article says, are supposed to receive more than 14 million rubles in federal payments, in addition to regional supplements. If a serviceman is listed as missing, his relatives continue to receive monthly payments for his participation in the war, and can later seek a court ruling recognizing him as dead.
The outlet also recalls that, according to Important Stories, from 2022 to 2024 at least 49,000 Russian servicemen were classified as deserters or as having left their unit without authorization. The journalists cited internal Defense Ministry databases that became publicly accessible at the end of 2024. Among the people listed in those databases were some who were later recognized as dead, captured, or missing.