Russian Defense Ministry Is Not Combating Hepatitis C and HIV Epidemics in the Army, Says Kremlin Propaganda Bloger Kashevarova

Pro-Kremlin propaganda person and TV host Anastasia Kashevarova on her Telegram channel acknowledged the problem of the spread of hepatitis C and HIV in the Russian front line.

According to her, the cause was the recruitment of fighters with such diagnoses, first from prisons, and then from the general population, as well as drug use in the army.

Kashevarova blames “gypsies and the local unreliable element” for the fact that Russian soldiers use psychoactive substances. In reality, those who used drugs before going to war continue to use them even on the frontline. Since the full-scale invasion began, a drug market similar to Russia’s has flourished in the occupied territories, as described by soldiers and dealers themselves to the publications Novaya Gazeta Europe and Verstka.

Among other things, Kashevarova claims that in Ukrainian captivity, Russian soldiers are allegedly deliberately housed with people with HIV, “so they get infected and bring it all back to Russia.” However, Kashevarova does not mention that HIV is transmitted only through sexual contact or blood-to-blood contact.

“Right now, there is just an epidemic of Hepatitis C in the army. Hepatitis doesn’t show up immediately. Not only are fellow soldiers at risk, but also loved ones and relatives when a fighter is on leave at home,” Kashevarova writes.

Among the problems the Russian Defense Ministry ignores in connection with the epidemic, the propagandist lists:

• shared living arrangements between infected and healthy soldiers;
• conducting surgeries and blood transfusions without checking soldiers for HIV and hepatitis;
• soldiers with hepatitis are not sent home on leave; they continue to fight.
• They are not offered treatment for hepatitis C on the front, nor are they registered at medical institutions. Mercenaries are not eligible for free therapy at civilian facilities, as they are required to be treated in Defense Ministry hospitals.

The military department also does not provide antiretroviral therapy for HIV, even though, according to Kashevarova, the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry has purchased the medications.

The propagandist concludes that the epidemic will spread from the front to the entire country. “Right now it’s the army, and it’s spreading to the front-line regions, but soon it will go deep into Russia,” she writes.

Objective data backs Kashevarova’s claims. Last year, Defense Ministry doctors published an article in the Military Medical Journal (which was noted by Verstka journalists). It stated that the number of registered HIV cases in the army in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased 20-fold compared to prewar figures, with the peak in case numbers recorded after mobilization.

The actual HIV incidence in the army might be much higher. Many fighters with HIV submit fake medical certificates when signing their contracts, and during recruitment for the war, people were often not tested for the virus at all. HIV incidence is also rising among civilians in the occupied territories.

A Carnegie Endowment report states, among the reasons for the spread of HIV among military personnel may be unprotected contact with sex workers and repeated use of disposable needles. “When hostilities end, treatment for a significant number of the wounded will take weeks or months. But expensive treatment for those who contracted HIV during the war will have to be maintained for life, at a minimum, to reduce the risk of further spread of infection. This burden on the Russian state budget, health care system, labor market, and demography will stretch across the second and third quarters of the 21st century,” the foundation predicts.