Despite Nominal Ban, Russian Military Still Signing Up Mentally Handicapped to Fight and Die in Putin’s War in Ukraine, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 15 – Before Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian military tried to avoid drafting those with psychiatric problems or mental retardation to serve in the ranks; but since then, to meet the military’s needs, such restrictions have been ignored and many who shouldn’t even be in the military are now dying in the war.

            That is the judgment of various soldiers’ rights activists as reported by Regina Khisamova, a journalist for Radio Liberty who focuses on the particular problems of the North Caucasus (idelreal.org/a/diagnoz-ne-pomeha-kak-v-rossii-verbuyut-na-voynu-lyudey-s-mentalnymi-narusheniyami/33731342.html).

            Officially, bans on the induction of those with psychiatric problems or mental retardation remain in place, these activists say, with the defense ministry even issuing new lists of conditions that if identified should excuse an individual from having to serve. (For the most recent of these lists, see regulation.gov.ru/projects/166381/.)

            But as the war has continued and the need to fill the ever-depleting ranks of the Russian army, these bans are simply ignored; and courts typically ignore suits by relatives of such people because commanders on the ground see even the psychologically disturbed or mentally retarded as resources,  especially when fully healthy men are difficult to find.

            Consequently, those who should be protected by the government and who are so protected at least on paper are increasingly put in situations where they cannot escape continuing to serve until as far too often happens they die in a military conflict that they either cannot cope with or even fully understand.

            Activists say that the problem is widespread, but they cannot say exactly how many men are involved. It appears likely that this problem is greater in rural areas far from major cities where there are few people familiar with the law and ready to defend such individuals and where the courts may be especially unwilling to support such people.

            But however small the number of cases this involves, it is yet another example of the way in which the Putin regime rides roughshod over its own rules in order to find enough men, however poorly equipped they are, to fill the ranks that are constantly being thinned by battle. The longer the war goes on, therefore, the more likely this problem will continue to grow.