‘He had no understanding of what war is’ How the Russian authorities forced a man with an intellectual disability into the army, where he faced threats and abuse
Last year, Alexey Vachrushev, a 22-year-old in western Russia who has an intellectual disability, was coerced by police into signing a military contract — despite having a medical certificate stating he was unfit for service. After enduring abuse and threats at his training center, he fled and returned home, only for the authorities to forcibly send him to the combat zone in Ukraine. Now he’s on the run again, and his mother is fighting for his freedom and right to a trial. Meduza shares an abridged translation of his story, as reported by the Russian outlet Regional Aspect.
Alexey Vachrushev is from the village of Chernovskoye in Russia’s Perm region. In August 2024, his neighbors accused him of stealing food from them. According to his mother, nothing was found when he was searched. Shortly thereafter, however, Alexey was pressured into signing a military service contract.
“The police told him, ‘It’s either 10 years in prison, or you can go to the special military operation,’” Olga explained. “Do they really give that kind of sentence for theft? It all happened so fast — we didn’t even have time to hire a lawyer.”
Alexey has been diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. He has spent most of his life under psychiatric care and graduated from a specialized school for children with developmental disabilities.
The Russian military had previously found Alexey fit for limited service: he could only be called up during a general mobilization. According to the medical commission’s recommendations, he was only eligible for non-combat roles, such as in rear or medical units.
“He’s 22 years old, but developmentally, he’s just a child,” Olga said. “He had no understanding of what war is — it seemed like an adventure to him. We begged him not to enlist, and the [nearest] draft office in Bolshaya Sosnova refused to let him sign a contract. They knew about his diagnosis. But then he was sent to Perm, and there, they processed his paperwork.”
Alexey was then sent to a training center in the Chelyabinsk region. At first, he called his mother and reassured her that everything was fine. But soon after, he confessed that he was being abused and mocked. According to Olga, other soldiers would force him out of his shelter at night, insult him, beat him, and even threaten to rape him.
“He said he couldn’t sleep; they would kick him out of the dugout, call him names, and abuse him,” she said. “One soldier even threatened to rape him. He sent me the messages, which I saw. Alexey complained to his commander. The commander overheard him talking to me on the phone and said, ‘I’ll fuck you up myself!’”
Unable to endure the abuse, Alexey ran away from the training unit in the fall of 2024. He first ended up in a workhouse in Yekaterinburg, then made his way back home. According to Olga, he returned sick, with a fever, and without any belongings. At home, he gave her a detailed account of what he had been through. Olga contacted government authorities and filed a complaint with the military prosecutor’s office in Moscow, hoping they would investigate Alexey’s case.
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That evening, a former police officer visited Alexey, assuring him that while the investigation was ongoing, he could stay at home. But the next day, officials from the military prosecutor's office came and took him away to an unknown location. Soon after, Alexey called his mother from a combat zone in Ukraine. There, according to Olga, the abuse continued:
Half of his teeth were knocked out. I saw through the Sberbank Online app that he was regularly transferring money from his salary to other soldiers. In early February, there was 400,000 rubles in his account, likely a one-time payment, after which the card was blocked.
In February, Alexey told his mother that he’d be unable to communicate with her for a while because his unit was being sent on a combat mission. After that, he disappeared. Olga tried to learn his whereabouts from his unit mates. On March 11, she was told that Alexey had tried to escape, been caught, and thrown into a “pit.” A week later, he contacted her and recounted what had happened.
“One soldier started shooting at him up close to test his bulletproof vest,” Olga recalled.
Alexey tried to run away, but they caught him and beat him severely, punching his kidneys, liver, and stomach. They doused him with diesel fuel and threatened to burn him alive. They said his grave was already prepared. The abuse lasted for several days, but one day, he managed to escape again.
Later, according to Olga, one of the commanders called her, screaming, threatening her, and telling her that her son was a deserter.
Now, Alexey is again on the run and refuses to return to his unit. Olga has reached out to every government body she can think of, including the regional human rights commissioner, which referred her to the Red Cross. But none of them offered any help.
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“I’m asking for help — let them put him on trial, but here, while respecting the law. Ensure his safety. Otherwise, they’ll just kill him for being a witness and victim of these crimes. I can’t bear the loss of another child,” she said.
Six years ago, in late 2018, Olga’s 19-year-old daughter, Viktoria Vakhrusheva, was brutally murdered by a man named Yevgeny Chetvertakov, whom she’d met online while working as a waitress. Court documents indicate that Chetvertakov stabbed Viktoria at least 10 times.
It wasn’t until the following May that Viktoria’s remains were found. In the months before her body was discovered, Olga held out hope for a miracle. Viktoria wasn’t Chetvertakov’s only victim — he also murdered another woman he met online, stabbing her at least nine times, according to court records.
In 2020, Chetvertakov was sentenced to life in prison. However, an appellate court later reduced his sentence to 19 years. He was also ordered to pay Olga compensation for moral damages, and for a time, she received monthly payments of 90 rubles (about one dollar) from the prison. At some point, however, the payments stopped. Olga suspects that her daughter’s murderer signed an army contract and was sent to fight in Ukraine.
Alexandr Kryazhev / RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia