Three Years of Mobilization: What One Region — and the Whole Russia — Has Endured

“If this post is published, it means I’m already on my way to the military unit for mobilization service <...> I don’t want to leave, to shoot, and I see no reason to deprive other people of their lives,” — wrote 23-year-old Tomsk resident Nikolai Koksharov on VKontakte in September 2022.

He attached several tracks by the band Pornofilmy — effectively banned in Russia — and the song Gosudarstvo [State] by Lumen, with the lyrics, translated “I love my country so much and hate the state,” “Pay your taxes and live in peace — they keep waging wars with this money.”

Koksharov is one of 2,153 residents of Tomsk Oblast whom Russian authorities sent to fight in the war with Ukraine during mobilization. The full list is contained in documents from the Tomsk Oblast Department of Social Protection, which are in the possession of IStories. We have verified the list, studied data from other sources, and spoken with those who went to war and their loved ones. Here, using one region as an example, we tell what happened to the mobilized over three years.

What we found out:

• at least one in four mobilized was killed, went missing, or was wounded;
• 11% of the mobilized died; almost a quarter of them — in the very first year after mobilization began;
• at least 5% of the mobilized were declared to have gone AWOL (absent without leave, AWOL). Everyone whose sentences for AWOL we know of received suspended sentences;
• one in five sent to war was under 25;
• mobilization hit the periphery harder than the center: the share of mobilized in villages and rural areas was 2.7 times higher than in cities.

The mobilization process. “Will you be taken to war like my dad?”

Tomsk resident Nikolai Koksharov taught children hand-to-hand combat. He received his draft notice on the fifth day of mobilization, September 25. A few days later, Nikolai began keeping a diary on VKontakte (speech patterns preserved), which was noted by the publication SibirMedia.

Day one 25.09.22

Two women came, handed me the draft notice

No instructions on what to bring with me

Fear and the look of my mother, turning gray before my eyes, says stay home

But the man inside thinks that if I run away, then what kind of man will I be. Will I be able to demand courage from the guys in the ring if I myself ran away at the sight of difficulties. How many mothers will see their children every day, if I perform the tasks set for me well.

Like most of the mobilized from Tomsk Oblast, Koksharov was under 30: he was 23 at the time of mobilization. The oldest mobilized in Tomsk Oblast was 60, the youngest — 19.

Kirill from Shegarsky District, Tomsk Oblast, received his draft notice on his twentieth birthday. “I wanted to visit my parents to celebrate my birthday with them. The year before, I had served in the army, celebrated my birthday away from home. I had to celebrate at home no matter what. I arrive home, get off the bus, walk past the military enlistment office, and they call me: ‘Here, take your draft notice,’” — Kirill recalls in conversation with IStories.

Before mobilization, he worked as a sales clerk at a grocery store and was sure he wouldn’t be sent to war: “During my conscription service, I was with the National Guard. I don’t even know what war is. They didn’t train me, didn’t prepare me for war during my service.”

After mobilization was announced, 1.1% of men in Tomsk Oblast, who were supposed to have combat experience and a military specialty, were called up for war. This was the average estimate across Russia, as given by former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. But within the region, mobilization was uneven: fewer people were taken from the regional center than from other districts. In Tomsk, only half a percent of reservists were mobilized, the average for cities in the region was 0.8%, while in rural areas it was more than two and a half times higher, at 2.1%.

The risk of being mobilized is reduced not only by living in a big city, but also by education level. Men with higher education were mobilized 14 times less often than those without. Many Tomsk residents earned a living through low-skilled work before mobilization: more than a third had previously sought work as drivers or laborers. Almost one in five had a driver account in taxi and freight services. Data on education and profession are available only for a small portion of the mobilized; more details — in the chapter “Explaining our calculations.”

Diary entry

Nikolai Koksharov

Day two 26.09.22 Didn’t sleep at night, had some wine... Slept a couple of hours, went to work 8:30–10:00 first practice 9–11-year-olds at the end of practice went to the bathroom *cried*, came back to the gym sat the boys down "here’s the situation , I’ve been called to work in another city, you might soon have another coach for a while" held back the tears 10:00–11:30 second practice 7–10 years old at the end of practice sat the boys down said , same thing Yarik T. 8 years old asked: "will you be taken to war like my dad?" answered: "that I’ll go to a neighboring city, as a coach to help kids there" the boys got changed and left. screamed, pounded the punching bag, only stopped when the thought appeared in my head "what did I spend 24 years of my life on"

Killed. “They knew they wouldn’t survive”

Over three years since mobilization was announced, at least 522 people sent to war from Tomsk Oblast were killed, went missing, or were wounded at the front. That’s one in four mobilized in the region.

No less than 11% were killed. On average, 517 days passed from draft notice to funeral — a year and five months after mobilization began. About a quarter of the mobilized from Tomsk Oblast who were killed (23%) died in the first year of war.

The first deaths occurred just 32 days after mobilization began. IStories found the names of six Tomsk mobilized who died on October 24, 2022. They served in the 21st Separate Motor Rifle Brigade (military unit 12128). The circumstances of their deaths became known six months later from a publication by a district cultural center in Sverdlovsk Oblast.

According to a fellow soldier of the deceased, they were housed in the House of Culture in the village of Chervonopopovka in Luhansk Oblast. He claimed that their location was revealed by local residents, and at night the AFU struck with a HIMARS rocket system. “Those who were in large rooms died, most from blood loss under the rubble; those who survived were mostly in small rooms,” the publication said. “After that, there was heavy artillery fire for a whole day, preventing anyone from approaching the building to evacuate the wounded and dead.”

June 2022

April 2024

Aftermath of Ukrainian strikes on the House of Culture (left) and school (right) in Chervonopopovka, where Russian mobilized were reportedly hiding/Source: Google Earth

One of those killed that night was 28-year-old worker at a woodworking plant, Sergei Kandakov. As his wife Yulia told IStories, Sergei left Tomsk on September 30, 2022. First, the mobilized were sent to Rostov-on-Don, and later transferred to a field camp where they first received weapons. “He called me, quickly said that that’s it, now they’re taking us away, we were issued assault rifles,” Yulia describes her last conversation with her husband. “He took a photo with the rifle, sent me the picture. I asked, ‘Did they at least teach you something, explain anything?’ He said, ‘No, absolutely nothing. We’re heading somewhere on a mission, but I don’t even know where.’ They just arrived, lined up, called out names, and took them away.”

According to one version, Sergei and other mobilized died after a failed attempt to go into battle: “They knew they wouldn’t survive, but the commander ordered them to go to the end. Someone went forward and was killed. The rest, about 200 guys, went into the old school building to wait out the night and rest. And then [a rocket] struck there,” Yulia says.

This version matches accounts from relatives of mobilized from other Russian regions who also ended up at positions in Luhansk Oblast less than a month after being sent to the army. According to sources for Verstka and Dozhd, more than 500 untrained mobilized were transferred on November 1 to the area of Makeevka, a village 15 km northwest of Chervonopopovka. There, they also came under continuous artillery fire and were forced to retreat with heavy losses.

Over three years of mobilization in Tomsk Oblast, relatives searched for at least 27 people missing in the combat zone. Twelve of them were declared dead, the fate of the rest remains unknown.

Wounded. “Shrapnel from heels to shoulders”

Field hospital. Condition: 40% blood loss, shrapnel from heels to shoulders, punctured lung, conscious <...> Came to, and the doctor had already patched up my legs and lung. When I inhale, I feel [burning] in my lung, like I ate hot pepper. Meanwhile, the doctor was already cutting open my stomach, looking for shrapnel. Took me for an x-ray. Scanned everything, after the last shot my hair stood on end. I remember being wheeled out of the room and the old nurse shouted: “Why feetfirst, he’s still alive.”

That is how, in April 2024, Nikolai Koksharov described his injury and treatment in the hospital.

At least 13% of Tomsk’s mobilized were wounded in the war. Eighteen out of 289 people who were wounded over three years have since died at the front.

In almost half the cases where the reason for hospitalization was known, the mobilized from Tomsk Oblast were taken to the hospital with shrapnel or gunshot wounds (data on this was shared with IStories by Radio Svoboda, which has access to the database of military hospital patients). These are the most common injuries for all other participants in the war with Ukraine, regardless of region.

Whether the wounded were sent home or returned to the front is unclear. Data from the hospital database show that Tomsk mobilized were most often classified with light (49% of cases) and moderate (36%) injuries. However, these may be distorted: military hospitals understate the severity of wounds in order to return soldiers to the front faster and pay lower compensation — the amount depends on the severity of the injury, explained to Radio Svoboda military medic Alexei Zhilyaev.

Thus, the database includes nine Tomsk mobilized who were taken to the hospital with the diagnosis “amputation” (meaning they lost legs or arms at the front), and all of them were classified as having light or moderate injuries. This happened to 41-year-old Ivan Zakharchenko from Sovetsky District, Tomsk Oblast, who was taken to the hospital in summer 2023 with “traumatic amputation” of both legs. At the Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital, the severity of his wound was classified as moderate, although according to Ministry of Health criteria, loss of even part of a hand or leg is considered “serious harm to health.” To receive insurance payments for his injury and apply for a disability pension, he had to turn to a veterans’ aid fund.

Moderate severity was also assigned in the hospital to another Tomsk mobilized — Oleg Krivolapov, who lost an arm and a leg at the front while clearing mines in the Avdiivka direction. “My partner Seryoga defused several, I’d already neutralized the fifth, when I suddenly slipped,” — recounted Krivolapov. “The sixth mine caught me, tore off my arm, and when the blast wave threw me, I landed on another explosive device, which took my leg.”

In another 5% of cases, Tomsk mobilized who ended up in the hospital database were diagnosed with conditions that could be classified as mental disorders. Most often, it was asthenic syndrome (a state of chronic fatigue and exhaustion), but one was diagnosed with “schizophrenia.” In addition, at least one mobilized was hospitalized with hepatitis.

Deserters. “Better he sits in prison alive than at the front”

In September 2024, a court sentenced Yevgeny from the city of Seversk, Tomsk Oblast, on charges of desertion and a fatal traffic accident. In the end, the convicted man received five years and nine months in a strict-regime colony, with the sentence for desertion being twice as long as for the fatal accident. In court, the defendant said he left his unit to earn money for his daughter’s surgery.

Before the war, Yevgeny had his own business repairing washing machines. “He was handed a draft notice and given two days. After two days, we saw him off,” recalls his wife Ksenia about September 2022.

Ksenia was left without her husband, raising two children. Doctors diagnosed their eight-month-old daughter with a heart defect. “I was hysterical, in a terrible state. I didn’t go anywhere, didn’t talk to anyone. First, he [husband] was taken away. Second, I had a little baby in my arms. And then his father got added to it all,” is how she describes the first months of mobilization.

Yevgeny’s father divorced his wife and started a legal battle for his share of the apartment where Ksenia lived with the children. “He knocked on my windows, came into the house when I was alone with the child, threatened. He kept not only me, but also Zhenya’s mother in fear. We women are alone here, I have no father, no grandfather, just my 16-year-old son, and that’s all.”

Ksenia shared her domestic problems with her husband. “I cried, screamed, told him about his father. Asked him to come, because I needed to move out of the apartment where his father was coming. Everyone was worried about our daughter. The doctor explained to me that if there’s no improvement, surgery will be needed.”

Yevgeny tried twice to get leave from his commanders to go home, but was not allowed. Eventually, he went AWOL, but did not make it home. His father, finding out about his son’s arrival, filed a police report: allegedly, Yevgeny was threatening to kill him. After that, wanted posters for the mobilized appeared at the city entrance.

Yevgeny stopped in Krasnodar, and his wife and younger daughter joined him. “It was easier after I rushed to Krasnodar. My husband worked on a concrete mixer, earned well. We were saving up for our daughter’s treatment.” In court, Yevgeny said he did not want to desert and planned to return to service when he had saved enough for his daughter’s treatment.

In September 2023, Yevgeny’s truck collided with a scooter. The scooter driver died. A criminal case was opened against the mobilized, and in January 2024 investigators learned that Yevgeny was evading service. Seven months later, the court handed down a sentence for desertion and for the traffic violation resulting in death.

“We told the court, together with his mother, that it’s better he sits alive than there. Even though Zhenya expressed a desire to return to the front. It’s hard for him to sit in prison. He had his own business in the city, he was always on the move. But I told him that if he leaves, I’ll file for divorce.”

We found at least 25 mobilized from Tomsk Oblast who were tried for unauthorized absence from their unit. All whose sentences were published did not attempt to hide and returned home from the front to their wife or parents. And after a few months, most voluntarily reported to the military enlistment office. Only in two out of ten sentences was it mentioned that AWOL soldiers were detained by FSB officers. All convicted received suspended sentences, which means most likely they went back to the front.

Far from all cases of unauthorized absence and desertion reach court. In leaked databases of service members declared AWOL and the federal wanted list, we found another 88 people who tried to leave the front. The total number of AWOL and deserters is 114 people, that’s 5% of those mobilized from Tomsk Oblast. This is an approximate estimate: IStories previously reported that AWOL status is often assigned to those missing or even killed in action.

Mobilized at the front and after it

Mobilized Tomsk residents were assigned both to existing and newly formed military units. The mobilized from the 55th (military unit 55115) and 21st (military unit 12128) motor rifle brigades ended up on the front line in Luhansk Oblast as early as October 2022 and suffered their first losses: they were hastily sent to the front to hold positions after the successful offensive by the AFU. Judging by available obituaries, these units suffered losses near Kreminna in Luhansk Oblast at least until April 2023.

Residents of Tomsk Oblast also partially formed three new motor rifle regiments and one artillery regiment, as noted by CIT. Apparently, the largest regiment by number of Tomsk residents — the 1454th (military unit 95396) — took part in the battles for Avdiivka since spring 2023.

Half of the known casualties, according to open obituaries, occurred on the Avdiivka front, but due to the small sample size it is impossible to draw a conclusion about the bloodiest sector of the front for Tomsk residents. After the capture of Avdiivka, mobilized from Tomsk Oblast were used for further offensive operations toward Pokrovsk.

West of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian positions are being assaulted by the 433rd regiment. In June 2025, Dmitry Chebotar was killed on this front, serving as a platoon commander during the capture of Selidovo, and later leading an assault company of the 433rd regiment. Chebotar became the first mobilized from Tomsk Oblast to be awarded the title Hero of Russia, according to IStories’ analysis of open sources.

Unlike Chebotar, not all mobilized receive awards or veteran status. As of early 2025, only 12% of Tomsk’s mobilized (251 people) had been recognized as veterans, according to documents obtained by IStories. This status provides additional payments and benefits. By law, it is due to all mobilized, regardless of whether they returned home or not. However, a person must apply, collect documents, and get confirmation through military authorities. Probably, some mobilized are not willing to deal with bureaucracy for the sake of modest payments or simply don’t know their rights. By the third anniversary of mobilization, 14 Tomsk mobilized recognized as veterans had already died at the front.

The rest of the mobilized from our list — those who did not return home in a coffin or due to injury and are not hiding from service (in reality, there are more than we can establish) — are likely still fighting. The mobilized do not have a fixed term of service: they remain in the army until a separate presidential decree, and no decree ending mobilization has been signed in three years.

Another possible outcome for the mobilized is to transition to contract status. In early 2024, reports began to appear that mobilized at the front were being forced to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense. This is done to avoid a sharp outflow of people from the army if hostilities stop (in that case, the mobilized would go home, while contract soldiers would have to serve until the end of their contract), to improve contract recruitment statistics, and also to reduce “social tension” (the mobilized and their relatives were dissatisfied with indefinite deployment at the front), reported Verstka.

The scale of such coercion is unknown: there is no data on how many mobilized became contract soldiers across the country. However, in some regions, the number can be determined by budget spending on payments to mobilized who signed contracts. In Tomsk Oblast, there is no such data, but in neighboring Irkutsk Oblast, it is clear that over all the years since mobilization began, 16% of the mobilized in the region received these payments.

Kirill from Tomsk Oblast, mobilized on his birthday, rose to the rank of corporal in three years, serves as a tank crewman, and has already gone on leave three times. He told IStories that he screams at night, admits that he is now no less afraid than he was at the start of the war, and reflects on the course of the war: “Damn, sometimes I ask myself: what is all this for? Why? For what? So many losses. For what?”

Ksenia, the wife of convicted of desertion and fatal accident Yevgeny, lives in Seversk alone with her children. Her daughter did not need surgery, but health problems remain. In addition to caring for the children, she now has to support her husband in prison. “I live alone, raising two kids. My older son does sports, I recently paid 15,000 rubles just for a kimono and gear. I keep in touch with my husband through the Zonatelekcom app — you can write, send photos, transfer money for the prison store, and call, but it’s all very expensive. At first it was hard, of course, but you get used to everything.”

The children’s coach from Tomsk, Nikolai Koksharov, spent almost three years at the front. He participated in battles for Selidovo and Avdiivka, and by summer 2023 transferred to a UAV unit and began posting videos from FPV drone cameras. In April 2024, he was wounded: “24 shrapnel pieces, a hole in my lung, 2 surgeries,” and in July 2025, he filed a report for discharge. Now Nikolai is recovering from his wounds and collecting aid for Russian soldiers. His attitude toward the war, which in 2022 he wrote he saw no reason to deprive others of life, in February 2025 he expressed with a fake quote from Russian Empire general and military theorist Alexander Suvorov: “A person who loves his loved ones, a person who hates war, must destroy the enemy so that after one war, another does not begin.”