Nikita Zvezdov was just 15 years old when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He was drafted into the Russian army immediately after he turned 18 in April 2024. Shortly before this, he failed to enter a vocational school in Krasnoyarsk, and he believes that his expulsion was deliberate.
Over the past few years, reports have emerged that Russian students were not only being drafted into the army, but were also being prevented from taking exams or deliberately failing them to prevent them from being drafted into the army. This information has not been verified.
In May 2024, after receiving a call for military service, Zvezdov was sent to military unit 25573 near Ussuriysk. Soldiers often die while serving in this unit, and there have been reports of harassment, extortion and beatings. The unit is well known for its crime on various online forums.
Zvezdov said that unit officers pressured him and other conscripts to agree to longer service in the army. “I promised myself and my relatives that I would not sign a contract for (the conflict),” Zvezdov said, adding that he never wanted to fight against Ukraine at all.
Nikita Zvezdov was drafted into the Russian army immediately after he turned 18 in April 2024.Image: private
“I was sent to the training ground, where they also did whatever they wanted – officers shot many conscripts in the legs, beat them and punished them for everything they could and could not do,” Zvezdov continued. “Do 200 push-ups in a gas mask and run 50 laps in a bulletproof vest with a weight of 25 to 30 kilograms on top.”
Zvezdov said that he had suicidal thoughts and even tried to jump off a cliff, but the police did not allow him to do so. After this, another officer forced him to sign a service contract.
The young man is not alone in this experience. The Russian army is experiencing manpower shortages and conscripts are regularly forced to serve for longer periods.
The mothers of several Russian soldiers told Russian media outlet Astra, which operates primarily through its Telegram channel and has been labeled a “foreign agent” by the Russian government, that their sons were deceived or harassed until they signed contracts.
“There is no choice but to run”
A month after signing the contract, Zvezdov was informed that he was being sent to units operating in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine near Melitopol, which are known for their high casualty rates. “I realized that, in principle, I definitely had no other choice but to run. It wouldn’t be possible to wait it out either,” he explained.
After Zvezdov received his first soldier’s salary—40,000 Russian rubles (450 euros/$510)—the young man applied for leave, ostensibly to stock up on provisions before being sent to the front. A former prisoner who was also drafted into the army was assigned to keep an eye on him.
Zvezdov had to contact him via WhatsApp every few hours. But he was lucky – his caretaker did not pay much attention to his work. Zvezdov threw away his uniform and fled to Armenia.
In fact, he was not classified as a deserter for another six months. By that time, Zvezdov had traveled further: first to Bosnia and Herzegovina, then to Croatia, where he asked for political asylum.
But without waiting for a decision on his asylum application, the young Russian left again, arriving in December 2025 in Germany, where his grandfather lives. In Germany, he once again applied for asylum.
German authorities rejected his application, citing the European Union’s so-called Dublin Rule, which means that the country where the asylum seeker enters is the state responsible for his application. In Zvezdov’s case, this is Croatia.
Soldiers from Nikita Zvezdov’s squad were transferred to the occupied territory of UkraineImage: private
Germany was to send Zvezdov back to Croatia within six months; the deadline for this will be at the end of July 2026. If he is not sent back, responsibility for his asylum claim will return to Germany.
However, according to human rights activists, Russian deserters have virtually no chance of obtaining asylum in Germany. This is despite the fact that the last German government, which was more left-wing politically, said in 2022 that conscientious objectors and deserters deserved protection.
But public statements by politicians have no bearing on the interpretation of the law, explained Alexey Kozlov, manager of human rights and research projects at Solidarus in Berlin, an organization that supports civil society in the former Soviet Union. Many such applications have been rejected on the grounds that deserters do not face a “real risk” of serious persecution or being sent to Ukraine upon return.
This was confirmed by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). According to the BAMF, each asylum application and the applicant’s risk of persecution are investigated on an individual basis.
Protection is only granted “where there is a real, individual and justifiable fear of persecution,” the BAMF said.
Kenyan athlete tricked into fighting for Russia in Ukraine
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Makeshift prisons and torture chambers
In fact, there are hundreds of reports of Russian deserters being sent straight to the front lines and subjected to brutal treatment. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Astra has identified 29 illegal detention centers for Russian conscientious objectors, mainly in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as in Russian territory.
Improvised prisons are set up in basements, abandoned industrial buildings, camps, private homes and other structures. Thousands of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian citizens, including wounded and disabled people, are held here. In prisons, officers extort money from prisoners, urinate on them, starve them, beat them, torture them, or even kill them.
According to Astra, the Russian military set up something like a “torture chamber” in the Petrovsky quarry in Donetsk.
“They bring soldiers there with bags on their heads,” a former Russian soldier told Astra on condition of anonymity; he escaped from the unit in 2024. “They are not fed. If you want to go to the toilet, they give you a bag and tell you to go. We were hung from the ceiling by our arms and legs.”
A deserter from the Russian army flees from the front line in Ukraine to France.
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The former deputy platoon commander ended up there along with his subordinates because they refused to go to the front line. He said that almost all of his people died there.
According to the German parliament, the Bundestag, a total of 126 people were deported to Russia in 2025. Solidarity’s Kozlov said that since Germany’s new coalition government came to power a year ago, the already slim chances of Russian deserters getting asylum are now virtually nil.
Church asylum delayed deportation
As for Zvezdov, after he was denied asylum in Germany, he managed to obtain so-called “church asylum.”
Church asylum – or “Kirchenasil” in German – is provided when a community agrees to temporarily shelter refugees facing deportation. In Germany there is no legal right to church asylum, but in practice, if the church grants asylum to someone, the state will often suspend deportation proceedings and review the case.
Thanks to this, Zvezdov was able to move from the refugee camp to a church near Aachen, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. There he spends most of the day, working in the kitchen or on the grounds; this step allowed him to remain in Germany for now.
Returning to the camp where he had previously lived, the German police came for him on the evening of June 16. If he had been there, he would probably have been deported to Croatia the next day.
Now the young Russian is counting the hours until July 30, when responsibility for his asylum application will fall on the shoulders of the German authorities.
But if they reject his application, Zvezdov is not sure what he will do – most likely try to seek asylum in a country outside the EU, he said. He is absolutely sure that he will not be able to return to Russia for several decades.
This article was originally written in Russian.