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‘Better than ending up under a bush in Ukraine’. How Russian army deserters are getting themselves sent to prison to avoid being sent back to war
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With fleeing the country out of reach for many, some Russian deserters have turned to a new tactic to avoid being sent back to the war in Ukraine — getting locked up. Their lawyers have the unusual task of making sure their clients face charges that result in real prison sentences, since probation could mean being sent straight back to the front. The independent outlet iStories learned how Russian soldiers deliberately go AWOL to trigger criminal prosecution. Meduza shares an abridged translation of the outlet’s reporting.
All names in this story have been changed.
When the judge read out the guilty verdict, Vladimir let out a shout of joy: he’d been sentenced to several years in prison. “Better that than ending up under a bush somewhere in Ukraine,” his lawyer said. They embraced.
Back home, Vladimir’s family celebrated, too. “It felt like a huge weight had lifted,” said his wife, Yelena. “Our youngest is just a year old — at least he’ll get to know his father. And now I know my husband is in prison, the doors will open one day, and he’ll walk out a free man.”
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Vladimir was born in Luhansk. In 2018, his family left for Russia to escape the shelling, Yelena said. They all got Russian passports. In the fall of 2022, just after mobilization was announced, Vladimir received a draft notice.
He believed that anyone who didn’t report to the enlistment office would be taken anyway — just like in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” in the earliest days of the war. He also thought that mobilized men wouldn’t be sent into dangerous zones and that he’d be home soon. So, he went to war.
“I suggested all kinds of options — leaving the country, even going to prison,” Yelena recalled. “But he was naive, stubborn, still holding onto hope that there would be some kind of discharge. He kept saying, ‘I was mobilized, so I have at least a chance to be demobilized.’” But after a few months in an assault unit, Vladimir realized — as Yelena put it — that “the only way out was in a body bag.”
any way out
Two years later, Vladimir was wounded in the leg and sent home on medical leave. “He came up to me and said, ‘That’s it. Let’s go to prison.’ So I got in touch with a lawyer,” Yelena recalled. Vladimir never returned to his unit.
Before turning himself in, Vladimir planned to let his leg heal — but he didn’t have time. He was detained on the street, taken to the train station, and put on a train to St. Petersburg along with new recruits. From there, they were meant to be sent to the front. “That’s it, my friend — you’re going to the assault unit,” someone told him. “There were all these happy contract soldiers around bragging about how much [money] they’d been given in different regions,” Yelena recalled.
From the train, Vladimir managed to call his wife. “I told him, ‘Hide your documents and run the moment you get to the station.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”
Vladimir hid out in an apartment belonging to friends in St. Petersburg. He needed to stay off the radar for a few days — long enough to be declared AWOL and for prosecutors to open a criminal case, Yelena explained. Under Russian law, criminal liability begins 48 hours after failing to report for duty. After that, Vladimir met with the lawyer, and together they submitted a voluntary confession.
The investigation lasted three months. “The whole time, we were terrified they’d take him [back to the front],” Yelena said. They were especially afraid he’d get probation. According to Yelena, several people they knew had been sent back to the front after receiving it. “We had a lot of mitigating factors, even some state awards. The lawyer kept saying, the main thing is: don’t get probation.”
So when Vladimir was finally sentenced to prison time, the family felt nothing but relief. “Our family no longer belongs to the Defense Ministry,” Yelena said.
‘You have to fight to be imprisoned’
According to an iStories investigation, at least 49,000 Russian soldiers have deserted since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Deserting directly from the front lines is both difficult and dangerous. In July 2024, Russia officially legalized the use of so-called pits where soldiers accused of misconduct or refusing to fight are held. These are essentially improvised field prisons, where detainees can be beaten, humiliated, or worse. For this reason, most soldiers who choose to desert do so while on leave or recovering from injuries, according to the conscientious objection advocacy group Call to Conscience.
Few deserters have the means to flee the country, a lawyer who works with soldiers explained. Many lack money or an international passport. And leaving often means reaching out to human rights groups for help — something not everyone can do. “And then what do you even do [once you’ve left]?” the lawyer added. “It’s terrifying.” So, most deserters remain in Russia, hiding from the authorities: avoiding bank cards, leaving major cities, and staying away from their registered addresses. Some even go off-grid in the woods.
This pattern is confirmed by Get Lost, an organization that’s helped 1,973 service members escape the front since the war began. Fewer than 800 of them have left the country, according to the group’s spokesperson, Ivan Chuvilyaev. Most have stayed.
Yelena and her partner, Vladimir, were among those who once considered fleeing. “I really wanted to go to Georgia — I even convinced him,” Yelena said. “But when Georgia started to shift [toward a pro-Russian stance]… I got scared.”
While extraditions of Russian army deserters from neighboring countries remain rare, they do happen. In April 2025, for example, Azerbaijan extradited Sotim Savlatov, a Russian soldier accused of desertion. There have also been reports of Russian soldiers and activists being kidnapped in Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Armenia.
“Going to Europe would be incredibly hard with three kids,” Yelena continued. “I don’t think we could’ve managed it. And even if we did, there’s no guarantee we’d be granted asylum. We could’ve sent him alone, but he said he wouldn’t leave without us.”
Life in the Russian army
Vladimir’s decision to turn himself in and serve time rather than flee isn’t unusual. Since spring 2024, Call to Conscience has seen a steady rise in the number of deserters seeking help with turning themselves in and navigating the legal consequences.
During the fall and winter of 2023–2024, the organization received about one such request per month. By May 2024, that number had jumped to an average of 10 per month — and it’s continued at that pace ever since.
For a soldier who chooses prison over returning to war, the path is fraught with danger. Even though criminal proceedings can be initiated as soon as 48 hours after a soldier leaves their post, in practice, commanders are often slow to report desertions to law enforcement. Their priority is keeping boots on the front lines — not punishing those who leave, as one military lawyer explained. Initially at least, commanders try to locate deserters and bring them back.
According to the lawyer, a soldier must often fight hard just to make it to trial. Even after surrendering, many are pressured — or forcibly compelled — to return to the battlefield. By late 2024, Sibir.Realii reported that at least 150 criminal cases under Article 337 of the Russian Criminal Code (which covers unauthorized absence from military service) had been suspended during court proceedings after the defendants agreed to go back to war.
“You have to fight to be imprisoned,” another lawyer told iStories. “Until now, I’d never had people come to me asking to make sure their case was officially classified as criminal.”
No exit
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