The BBC was able to talk to one of the Russian army contractors who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine. His name has been changed for security reasons, the editors have at their disposal the real data of the military man and documents confirming his biography.

In 2020, in one of the million-plus cities of non-central Russia, 21-year-old Sergey Bokov graduated from college, became a certified electrician and received a summons to the army – for military service. By that time, in Russia, young people with an education not lower than secondary specialized had been offered for several years to immediately conclude a contract with the Ministry of Defense – and serve not for a year, but for two, but with a salary, days off, and you can not live in the barracks.

“I signed it because there are more pluses, it’s more comfortable to serve, and it was interesting to get to know the army more professionally, not as a conscript, to understand the military craft,” Bokov tells the BBC. At the end of 2020, he left for the nearest unit from his hometown as an electrician driver.

Serving there, 23-year-old Bokov now recalls with nostalgia: “To be honest, after what I went through, it seems to me that I lived there wonderfully.”

In peacetime, military service is a routine: checking and maintaining equipment, cleaning the territory, maintaining weapons in proper condition.

– Did they teach you anything military?

– My personal opinion – I was not enough. During a year at school or college, a student learns a lot of new things, and a year in the army, in terms of training, passes almost without a trace. There are very few sensible classes and sensible officers. There were few useful activities in my unit.

– Was there something that could be useful in the war?

– Well, shooting, shooting on vehicles.

In November 2021, when Bokov had a year of contract service left, the units began to say that all the military would go on a business trip in January – to Voronezh and Belgorod. Why – did not specify. Then they began to explain that these would be exercises, recalls Bokov.

Before the New Year, relatives of recent graduates of technical schools listened to politicians on TV assuring that there would be no war – and began to ask their husbands, brothers and sons where they were going and why they were going there in such numbers.

“Then they told us to let our families know that we were at the Allied Resolve 2022 exercises. You see, they even invented the name of the exercises … But there were no mass exercises. They deceived beautifully. “.

Bokov met the New Year 2022 at home, and on January 23, in a military echelon, he left for the southern cities of the Chernozem region. Feb. 1 got off the train. After a couple of tens of kilometers, they set up a field camp: they arrived, set up tents and began to live in the forest.

In large military tents of the M-30 model – more than 40 square meters – 20 people slept.

“The conditions were comfortable. Everything was fine before the war. We didn’t have any suspicions that this was not an exercise,” says Bokov. “A large field camp. storage of weapons. There was no such thing that we received them in our hands. ”

The military did nothing – they waited “when something starts.” They settled there, lived, went to outfits, guarded the camp. They annoyed the inhabitants of a small town: “We probably shook everyone there,” laughs Bokov. “We went to shops, hung around in all kinds of entertainment complexes.

Three weeks stood and waited. On February 23, according to Bokov, the commanders said: “We are moving closer to the border, to another camp.” “We heard the news, of course, but no one believed that what happened would happen. The commanders told us to tell the families: we are going, they say, to a new camp, there will be no communication, do not lose [us].” The phones were taken from the soldiers.

On the night of February 24, Bokov woke up, sat down with his colleagues on the BMP and drove off.

He says that he realized that he had entered the territory of Ukraine only a few hours later at dawn – signs in Ukrainian began to appear along the road.

“As I understand it, we crossed the border not through the checkpoint, but through some forests. Therefore, we did not immediately understand where we were. We were driving inside cars, there was poor visibility and darkness.”

Bokov claims that the phrase “We went to the exercises, but ended up in the war,” popular among the captured Russian military, is not an attempt to justify or lie. It all happened, he says.

“Of course, we had a reaction … Did we really go there? Nobody wanted to believe that this was a war. Well, how is it, we came here to our home? And not a single shot was heard at that moment. In general, we did not believe to the last. We remembered that the exercises were called “Allied”, and decided that they were not only jointly with Belarus, but also together with Ukraine, too.”

Only later, according to Bokov, did the contractors realize that the Ukrainian troops “immediately and quietly” gave up the border, but stood up in the cities – and started the war from there.

“There was a feeling that at the beginning of the war they themselves were afraid and underestimated themselves,” he says.

Bokov’s column stopped in the forest for refueling. But they didn’t have time to pour gasoline into all the BMPs – an artillery shell exploded thirty meters from the electrician.

“Or not a projectile… I didn’t really understand,” says Bokov. “It was such a big explosion… My heart is pounding, adrenaline, ahhh… Then we hear the command ‘By cars’ and we’re moving forward – out of the shelling zone.”

In the evening they reached an abandoned farm, stood in the old barns. “And only then the commander said:” Well, as you understand, these are not jokes, everything is serious. Take up defense, put up a patrol … ”

“That’s how we realized that we were at war,” says the contractor.

Bokov says he does not remember what he was thinking then. My first thoughts were: “Is this really happening? Is this really happening to me?! But I still can’t believe it, even when I’m talking to you.” His second thought: “We must survive.”

We had dinner with buckwheat and meatballs from a ration warmed up on a tablet of dry alcohol. Bokov then still had a sleeping bag – he will soon lose it. The four of us fell asleep in the combat vehicle. “It will protect from splinters, but if a projectile hits it, the crew will burn alive,” the military clarifies.

From that day on, Bokov came under fire almost every day. His division drove deep into Ukraine for 30 kilometers. “We had the right to ask, but we had the right not to answer. Questions like “where are we moving” were answered to us – to a new place of deployment.”

Then he learned that they were driving in the Chernigov-Kiev direction.

After four days of travel, the column disintegrated. The bridge they were crossing turned out to be mined – and exploded when Russian military equipment drove over it. The BBC was able to find coordinates and photographs confirming the undermining of the river crossing.

Part of Bokov’s colleagues who crossed the river left for Kyiv, but he did not have time to drive onto the bridge and remained on this bank. As a result, he joined another company and went to the siege of Chernigov.

On March 4, he managed to call his wife and mother. “Seryozha, are you at the border?” they asked first. “No. I ended up in a war.”

He did not hear the reaction – the connection was interrupted.

After the bridge was blown up, Bokov saw for the first time how colleagues were dying. He talks about it reluctantly.

“In addition to mortar and artillery shelling, we also came under automatic weapons. When we were driving past one village, they opened fire from automatic weapons, and the car was driving in front of us – and it was either blown up from a grenade launcher, or something else … I didn’t understand “what it was. It caught fire, people stayed there. We drove around in the BMP and drove forward, firing back. I didn’t look back.”

It was the first time in Bokov’s life that he actually shot. He did not see his opponents: “When a column is coming, they will not come close. Where the fire came from, we shot there. We just wanted to survive. We had to shoot down their density of fire so that they retreated.”

– You were lucky that the column broke up, there were more deaths near Kyiv?

– Well, I do not know. But according to the results of the losses in the company from which I lagged behind, there were fewer than in the one where I was moving.

Bokov recalls that they were constantly shelled both in the direction of travel and in the parking lots, so the overnight stays were short.

“The toughest of all are mortars and artillery. It’s generally tough. It just falls all over you, and you have to [and you] fall, take cover or something like a trench, just hope for good luck that he doesn’t fly right into you,” says the contractor.

– And what happened to the fighting spirit in the company?

– Now I’ll try to remember… There were those who were happy with what was happening, they wanted to and were eager to fight – these are people with experience of the war in the Donbass. They burned for the fate of the LPR and DPR and were eager to help them, to release them. But these are veterans.

– And how many of your peers from contract soldiers were there?

– Lot. The whole young company. Of the 50 people – 70% under 25 years old.

– In my company, which left for Kyiv, everyone survived, except for the one who ran into a land mine. And in the one where I stayed, almost everyone was under the age of 25, 10 people died, 10 were injured. In general, half the company suffered.

Bokov’s colleague from another company says that young mortarmen served with him, “who did not know how to shoot and from which end to approach this gun.”

“I thought that we are the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world, and here ***t [hit] us at night, and the infantry does not have night vision devices, we are like blind kittens,” says the source of the BBC. “Ukrainians have tanks with American nightlights. I’m shocked by ours, it’s a penny to equip everyone with these nightlights, why didn’t they exist?”

The same complaints about the lack of night vision goggles are found in Russian military conversations with families, which are intercepted by the Ukrainian Security Service and posted on YouTube.

The wounded and the dead, says Bokov, were taken away in the same cars to hospitals and morgues in Russia. Speaking about this, he uses the military term “cargo 300”, which refers to the transportation of a wounded soldier taken out of the battlefield. The name came into use after the war in Afghanistan. When transporting the wounded, the document form No. 300 (standard form) was filled out.

Bokov, who was still lucky, rode in a column further to Chernigov – he and his colleagues accompanied the artillery.

“On the way, everything is the same – shelling. Not everyone reached Chernigov. There were no real battles. Mines, fire from the air, ambushes – we never saw the enemy in person,” says the military man.

Two weeks after crossing the border, Bokov’s unit took up a position near Chernigov. “Our artillery fired at Chernihiv every night. And we guarded it. Ukrainian artillery flew in response.”

Chernigov was 10 kilometers from the attackers, at night they saw something burning there: “There was light over Chernigov – as if the sun was rising.”

In the city of Bokov and colleagues did not go. Unofficially, recalls Bokov, the commanders said that very few Russian troops arrived there – almost half of the planned number.

– There were not enough forces to clean up the city. And we did not wait for the reinforcement. You asked what was the plan. So, judging by the strategy we followed – or rather, the lack of a strategy … We went without helicopters, just in a column, like we were going to a parade. It seems that the command had a plan – to capture Ukraine, strongholds and cities very quickly. The calculation, perhaps, was that the Ukrainians would surrender. We moved as if we wanted to reach Kyiv in three days and along the way take all the cities on the road. We rush forward, with short overnight stays, without trenches, without reconnaissance. We didn’t leave anyone in the rear, we pass, for example, a village – and that’s all, if someone decides to come in from behind and hit us from the rear, there is no protection there. They do that in blitzkrieg, you know?

– Did it have consequences?

– I think that the guys died largely because of this. If we had moved gradually, with a turntable, if we had checked the roads for mines … I guess if we had not driven so much, the victims could have been avoided.

Since the beginning of March, the attack on Chernigov has been carried out in three directions. According to the mayor, all entrances to the city were mined. Fighting took place on the roads and bridges in the suburbs, but the Russian military did not take over the city.

Bokov spent two weeks in the forest near Chernigov. They went to the villages for water. He says that the locals, looking at the Russian soldiers with weapons in their hands, did not say anything bad to them: “What do you say if the other has a machine gun? So they didn’t call us invaders, rashists and orcs. it’s over. We were also pitied. It’s a pity that you are involved in this, it would have been over sooner, you would have gone home faster.”

And then contractors came from a neighboring unit and ordered Bokova and her comrades not to take any food from the locals. They assured that in the neighboring regiment, located nearby, the grandmothers allegedly fed the military pies, and “the guys died.”

Food from Russia reached Bokov’s company near Chernigov: cereals in bags and stew, it was possible to cook. They took water from a well in a neighboring village, they were not afraid – they thought the locals would not poison, but they themselves use it.

At night there was snow and frost, there were no more tents – no exercises. A makeshift canopy from the rain, under it is earth – soldiers put armor on it and spread blankets taken from neighboring houses. The looting of Bokov’s unit was limited to these blankets and products from shops, he assures.

“They took only what was necessary for survival. For us to snatch something from someone’s hands or enter residential houses – this was not the case. My group did not take any valuables. But in other units it was, I know.”

The Ukrainian military published videos from the Chernihiv region, where they take out dishes, children’s bicycles, toys and even coupons from the broken cars of the enemy – local money from the early 90s.

A resident of one of the villages in these videos told how the Russian military broke into his house, drove a truck into the yard and began to unload all the valuables from the garage. They stole, according to the pensioner, a TV, tools, two air conditioners and even a frozen pumpkin from the refrigerator.

The head of the Chernihiv region said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels that the Russian military “drag carpets, teapots and food from private houses.”

Bokov did not hear about executions or executions among the civilian population in the villages. He “does not rule out” that the locals could have suffered “accidentally due to shrapnel during shelling or when a column is marching at night – cars could ask a person.” But there was no intentional violence, he says of his unit.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, about 700 people were killed in the month of shelling in Chernihiv. Journalists called the besieged city a “death trap”: exits and bridges were mined, there was no electricity, heat and water, bread turned into a delicacy.

Judging by the stories of local media residents, the fire on Chernigov was so dense that those who died from shrapnel wounds were not taken out of the basements – and the children slept next to the corpses.

In total, Bokov spent 37 days on the territory of Ukraine. On March 29, his wife sent him a copy of the text of the news text: the head of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, Medinsky, spoke about de-escalation in the Kiev and Chernigov direction.

A day later, an order came to the company: we are going, we are leaving, where – again they did not say. And after 24 hours and one night, Bokov ended up in Russia.

Returning in early April, Bokov was not very happy. “Officially, no one said whether we were going to be home for a long time or not. We read the news that the war continues, de-escalation in only one direction, there were rumors in the military that we would be regrouped now, and then everything would continue.” Soon the contractors announced this officially.

At the same time, almost half of Bokov’s first company, returning from near Kyiv to Russia, refused to wait for the regrouping. The contractors, he says, said that they were returning from the border to their unit, where they would write reports and quit.

“If you want, judge us, do what you want, we won’t go to war anymore. We got on a ride and left,” he recalls.

His story is confirmed by the data of the investigative project Conflict Intelligence Team. Judging by them, about 20-40% of Russian servicemen withdrawn from the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy directions of the front in the first half of April tried and are trying to refuse further participation in the war.

Bokov, who broke away from his first company during the blowing up of the bridge, remained at the border, not daring to leave.

“I told him: write a report quickly. But he still couldn’t make up his mind. The commanders told them that they would be in reserve,” says Bokov’s friend, a lawyer. “I tell him, they told you about the exercises. They said that you were going to defend Luhansk. You have already been ***ed [deceived] twice, which means that ***t [will be deceived] a third time too! Run away from there!”

Bokov recalls that after the news about 20 contract servicemen who had left the border, the authorities convinced him not to follow their example. They said that they would be imprisoned, that 100% of them would be charged with criminal cases, and that leaving here would mean getting ten years in prison, recalls Bokov.

“That turned out to be untrue. But I didn’t know that then. I didn’t want to go and die and kill. I didn’t want to go to jail either.”

“They are all intimidated to the core, it’s true,” human rights activist, director of the human rights organization “Conscript School”, lawyer Alexei Tabalov, tells the BBC about contract servicemen who refuse to fight. “Tribunal! You will go to jail for 25 years! Draft evasion – 2 years, leaving the place of service – 2 years of disbat, non-execution of the order – 2 years. If the group did not comply with the order by prior agreement, as well as entailed serious consequences – and then up to 5 years. What 10-25 years?”

The commanders can be understood – they were told that they must keep people with all their might, so they intimidate them as best they can, Tabalov believes.

Tabalov’s practice shows that a contract soldier who has ended up in a war can refuse to continue military service – and without any criminal prosecution.

Since the beginning of the war, human rights activist Sergei Krivenko agrees with him, to whom the combatants turn for advice, not a single criminal case has yet been opened because of the refusal of a contract soldier to return to the front. Formally, war with Ukraine has not been declared, martial law has not been introduced in Russia, and no one has an order to participate in this event or marks on military cards.

A serviceman has a real chance not to be killed and not to kill people on the territory of Ukraine. “But he must take active steps himself. Sitting and hoping that his mother or grandmother will get him out of there is futile,” adds Tabalov.

The first step is to file a report refusing to participate in the special operation. In it, lawyers recommend referring to Article 59 of the Constitution. “The appearance of anti-war convictions after a month under artillery on the territory of Ukraine is quite suitable for a good reason,” says Krivenko.

A coalition of lawyers and experts from Russian human rights organizations has created a telegram bot to help citizens exercise their constitutional right to conscientious objection to military service. This right is enshrined in Part 3 of Article 59 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation .

A telegram channel has also been created, where recommendations are posted, it is served by a bot .

The commanders often do not accept the written report – they simply tear it. Then it is necessary to write a new one, human rights activists say. The main thing, says Krivenko, is to stick to your own, not to withdraw the report and not to run away from the camp “to nowhere”. The most difficult thing is to withstand the psychological pressure.

Often more than one person wants to leave the war, but a group of people who wish is broken up, they talk to each one separately, they scare them with prison terms, shame them, threaten them – and as a result, many military men agree to go back.

“Recently, such a person was broken in our country, and he left back,” one of the contractors, who is still on the border between Russia and Ukraine, tells the BBC. war or sit here until you’re blue in the face. They threatened to be fired, he said that he agreed, but anyway, in the end, for some reason, he went back. But he is strange, he is really a military man to the marrow of his bones. He told with genuine enthusiasm how he killed the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Even with a bit of romanticism. And then for some reason I didn’t want to go back. But I left in the end.”

Bokov waited at the border for 23 days. I decided to myself: “I am still a military man, so while we are standing at the border, I will stand. But if I hear an order to return, I will do something. I will not go there. I warned the commander about my decision – unofficially.”

On April 24, he heard an order – to return to the territory of Ukraine near Kharkov.

Bokov reminded the commander of his decision. He “was human” and said, they say, this is everyone’s choice. The electrician laid down his arms and took a taxi to the nearest town. Another soldier left with him. From there they went home in a blah blah car.

It is possible that Bokov’s determination was helped by his experience in one of the campaign headquarters of Alexei Navalny. While still a student, he worked in his region on the presidential campaign of the now disgraced politician. Responsible for street campaigning, cubes, volunteers, leaflets and signature collection. In the now banned Anti-Corruption Foundation in Russia, he is remembered as an energetic and skilled employee.

Having reached the unit – human rights activists insist that it is necessary to return to the military unit, and not to their apartment or to their parents – Bokov and a colleague wrote a report that they “arbitrarily left the field camp on the border with Ukraine due to the fact that they refuse participate in a special operation due to the fact that they are morally and psychologically exhausted and cannot continue.”

Refusal to participate, a letter of resignation – all documents were accepted without scandals, says Bokov.

“They didn’t even dissuade us, because we weren’t the first. And also the commander who accepted these statements, he is a military officer and was there. He didn’t sit at the headquarters. They came from there. And this officer saw everything there himself. And he says – well, it’s scary? And I say – of course, it’s scary, only a moron is not afraid. He says: “I agree.” And he didn’t ask more stupid questions, but only helped “.

Bokov was issued a gross disciplinary violation: “We left the camp without permission and we ask you to fire us. And the punishment for leaving the camp without permission is dismissal.”

Friends of the military prosecutors told Bokov: “We are not receiving signals that we should imprison you, and legally there is nothing to imprison you for.”

A disappointing response from the military prosecutor’s office was also received by commanders in other regions. For example, the BBC has documents signed by the military prosecutor of a garrison in one of the northern regions of Russia. They refer to a contract soldier who refused to comply with the commander’s order “to form a combined unit for departure to the site of a special military operation.”

The prosecutor writes that the commanding officer’s demand to initiate a criminal case is “premature” and that the harm done to the interests of the service has not been assessed.

Tabalov, Krivenko and other human rights activists talk about dozens of appeals from contractors who do not want to return to the war with Ukraine. They mention the Leningrad, Samara, Rostov, Pskov, Chelyabinsk regions, the Caucasus, the Far East.

“In total, this is about 10-15% of the total number of refuseniks. But there is a specificity in that one calls us and says that six or seven people are going to refuse together with him, and where 200-300 people are going to refuse.”

Lawyers recall the refusals to return to the war by 12 riot police from Krasnodar, 80 Russian conscripts and contract soldiers from the Far East, about 300 people from South Ossetia, 11 riot police from Khakassia, 60 military from Pskov.

According to lawyers, FSB officers usually release young people after signing a non-disclosure agreement. “Apparently, the Ministry of Defense has no desire to contact these refuseniks and somehow punish them. Of course, they create a problem, but it is not fatal. The Ministry of Defense has enough cannon fodder, people write to me every day with questions about how to get into the war. Just yesterday, they wrote again: in which military registration and enlistment office do you need to sign up in order to go beat the Nazis? I say, you need to go to a psychiatric hospital.

When Bokov was interviewed by the BBC, he had been at home for a week. But soon he will return to the military unit. It is necessary to pay off the military obligation to the state – now as a conscript, since he refused the contract. He has three months left to serve.

Whether he can be sent to war again, Bokov does not know.

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