Russia wanted two conscripts to fight in Ukraine. One came back alive.

Nonetheless, the younger males’s fathers every felt their son had a manly obligation to serve. One son returned house. The opposite got here again severely overwhelmed and died of his wounds quickly after, leaving his father, Nikolai Lazhiev, with unanswered, heartbreaking questions.

Lazhiev, who lives in an industrial city within the northern Karelia area, by no means opposed the warfare. He simply thought different folks ought to battle it — not his solely son, Andrei, 19, who was imagined to be shielded from energetic fight.

Regardless of Putin’s promise, Andrei was deployed to occupied Crimea, close to the entrance, and died after extreme beatings, apparently by members of his unit, in what his father suspects was a case of violent navy hazing.

Askhabali Alibekov, a former paratrooper and father of 4 who lives far south, within the port metropolis of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea close to Ukraine, couldn’t be extra completely different from the soft-spoken Lazhiev. Alibekov is a brash, fast-talking anti-Putin activist and videoblogger who all the time opposed the warfare and went to jail for his antiwar posts.

Alibekov’s son, Mikhail, 21, was additionally doing his necessary service and, like Andrei, was not imagined to be despatched to Ukraine. Alibekov thinks his son is alive immediately primarily as a result of he refused to signal a contract — regardless that troopers who don’t signal usually face humiliation or beatings, activists say.

“I knew that they’d take him hostage due to my exercise,” Alibekov mentioned, referring to his video posts towards Putin and the warfare. “And I informed him, ‘You aren’t going there. It’s higher you go to jail.’ And he listened to me.”

Lazhiev additionally persuaded his son to not signal. However relatively than reduction, he has solely questions now. How was his son killed — not combating, however by Russians? Who’s accountable? And the way did he come to be so betrayed by Russian energy?

Lazhiev, a steam turbine operator in Pitkyaranta, an industrial city on Lake Ladoga close to Finland, is patriotic, loath to problem authority and proud that Andrei graduated from the native technical school as an open-pit mining operator, driving tractors and bulldozers.

Andrei was a quiet, introverted “common man” who didn’t excel at exams and disliked sports activities, preferring books and historical past, his father mentioned. Andrei meekly started his obligatory navy service on June 26. In contrast to many others, significantly the sons of the rich elite, he didn’t flee to dodge his service.

“We had been by no means going to violate this regulation,” Lazhiev mentioned in an interview. “His perspective to it was completely regular. He anticipated it. It was routine.”

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On Aug. 26, two months after he was drafted, Andrei informed his dad and mom of stress to signal a contract.

“I informed him, ‘Son, you don’t want this. You might be too younger. You do not need a household. You do not need youngsters,’” Lazhiev mentioned. “I imagine that those that are mature, who’ve households, who’ve served, might signal contracts, however not him.”

Putin final month ordered a rise within the dimension of the navy by 170,000, amid immense casualties in Ukraine estimated by U.S. intelligence to be about 300,000 wounded or lifeless. Final 12 months, he signed a regulation enabling the navy to enroll conscripts, together with youngsters, as contract troopers.

Days earlier than the common October conscription spherical, distinguished Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov extolled the official upside-down logic that warfare “is life.”

“The reality is that man was born for warfare, not peace,” Solovyov mentioned on the state tv program “Nashi,” or “Ours,” the place one of many visitors wore a black balaclava. “Battle reveals a lot about folks you could see who’s who,” he continued. “Males all the time reside in warfare.”

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However households of mobilized troopers or conscripts pressured to signal contracts see it otherwise. Wives, dad and mom and teams struggling to save lots of males from the warfare are attacked as traitors, designated as overseas brokers and placed on wanted lists.

Every week after Andrei spoke of stress to signal a contract, his unit moved into Crimea in occupied Ukraine and he stopped calling. Three weeks later, a fellow conscript informed his father that Andrei was within the hospital. Every week later, the unit moved to Armyansk, close to the occupied Kherson area.

On Oct. 15, a fellow soldier contacted Nikolai Lazhiev from Navy Marine Hospital 1472 in Sevastopol to say that Andrei was in a extreme situation. He despatched images of Andrei in a wheelchair and searching unfocused.

The daddy contacted navy prosecutors and regional Russian officers in useless. The unit commander refused to reveal Andrei’s location. Docs “couldn’t diagnose him or in all probability they only didn’t disclose the analysis,” Lazhiev mentioned. “However the guys who had been with him mentioned that they noticed traces of beatings on his physique.”

“The medical doctors saved saying that he was effective,” Lazhiev mentioned, however they refused his requests to go to. He ultimately managed to talk to Andrei by cellphone and was shocked by his thick, halting voice. “By this time, he couldn’t see,” the daddy mentioned. “He misplaced his eyesight. And he might barely stroll. And he had misplaced 40 kilograms.”

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On Oct. 23, Andrei was transferred to a safe psychiatric unit. Lazhiev spoke to a health care provider there who didn’t give his title however described indicators of quite a few beatings Andrei had suffered. “Most likely he was overwhelmed on his head,” Lazhiev mentioned. The commander and officers “had been in all probability attempting to cowl up their crime,” he added.

Andrei’s situation sharply deteriorated on the finish of October, so his dad and mom purchased tickets to Sevastopol. Lazhiev referred to as the hospital from the airport early on Nov. 2, and discovered that Andrei had died. He was informed to go house.

The pathologist’s report discovered that Andrei died of swelling and hemorrhaging within the mind, however his dad and mom bought no solutions about what occurred. “We bought no data from the navy commanders, from the navy unit or anybody,” Lazhiev mentioned.

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Alibekov was in jail for his antiwar activism whereas his son was within the navy. However as a patriotic ex-commander who fought for Russia towards Chechen separatists, the elder Alibekov considered obligatory service as “the obligation of all males.”

‘Enormous psychological stress’

Nonetheless, he was positive officers would attempt to terrify conscripts into signing up. Mikhail was put “below large psychological stress” to signal, Alibekov mentioned.

“There have been many conscripts and almost all of them had been pressured to signal contracts,” Alibekov mentioned. “And out of his unit, solely he and three different guys refused to enroll. They had been humiliated terribly. The commanders mentioned, ‘Take a look at the cowards! They don’t need to die for the Motherland!’”

Alibekov was nonetheless in jail when his son returned from the military, however he sang and danced in his solitary cell. When he was launched in November after greater than a 12 months in jail, his son was ready on the gate, with an enormous smile on his face.

Alibekov went straight again to his YouTube weblog, condemning the warfare. To keep away from arrest, he’s on the run in an undisclosed location, determined to flee Russia along with his household.

Sergei Krivenko, who’s a part of the rights group Citizen, Military, Regulation, which advocates for conscripts and troopers, mentioned Russia’s navy was urgent teenage conscripts into signing contracts, aiming to make use of them as cannon fodder.

“They’re deceived,” Krivenko mentioned. “They’re informed, ‘Signal a contract and also you’ll be paid immediately.’ However they’re not informed that it is going to be unattainable to withdraw from the contract or end their navy service. They discover themselves on this navy atmosphere surrounded by their commanders with no clear thought of what to do.”

Lazhiev buried his son on the finish of November, however his questions and anger stay.

“Solely God is aware of what occurred,” he mentioned. “However so long as I’m alive, I’ll commit my total life to attempting to resolve this case.”