September 25, 2025

Three Years Gone


Three Years Gone
An 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade artillery exercise.
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Wikimedia Commons.

More than 2,100 men from Russia’s Tomsk Oblast have been sent to fight in Ukraine since the Kremlin announced its “partial mobilization” in September 2022, as part of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Three years later, about one in four of these recruits is dead, missing, or wounded, according to a list of names compiled by the independent outlet Vazhnye Istorii.

“I don’t want to leave, shoot or see any reason to take other people’s lives,” 23-year-old children’s sports coach Nikolai Koksharov of Tomsk wrote on VKontakte in September 2022. He attached songs from the banned punk band Pornofilmy and from Lumen’s “Gosudarstvo” (“The State”), which carries the line, “I love my country and hate the state.”

Koksharov was typical of those drafted from the region: young and without seniority. The oldest mobilized man from Tomsk was 60 years old, the youngest 19. Although officials promised that only trained reservists would be taken, the draft in Tomsk turned out to be uneven. 

Former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 1.1% of eligible men nationwide would be called up. But Vazhnye Istorii found just 0.5% of reservists were mobilized from Tomsk city, compared with 0.8 percent in smaller towns and 2.1% in rural districts.

Education also played a role. Men with higher education were one-fourteenth as likely to be mobilized than those without it. Before the draft, more than a third of the men worked as drivers or manual laborers; nearly one in five had accounts in ride-hailing or delivery apps.

By Vazhnye Istorii's count, at least 522 men from Tomsk have been killed, wounded, or disappeared in Ukraine. No fewer than 11% have died. The first confirmed deaths occurred just 32 days after the mobilization began. Six men from Tomsk were killed on October 24, 2022, including 28-year-old woodworking plant employee Sergei Kandakov, whose wife said he received almost no training before being sent to the front.

“He called me quickly and said they had been issued rifles and were being taken somewhere. He sent me a photo with the gun,” his wife Yulia told Vazhnye Istorii. “I asked if they’d been taught anything. He said, ‘No, absolutely nothing. We’re going on some assignment, but I don’t know where.’ They just lined them up, called names and took them away.” According to one account, Kandakov died alongside others after a failed assault: “They understood they wouldn’t survive, but the commander ordered them to go to the end,” Yulia said.

The outlet estimated about 13% of the mobilized have been wounded. Eighteen of the 289 injured men later died. Hospital records showed nearly half were classified as lightly wounded and more than a third as moderately wounded, but a military medic told Radio Svoboda that hospitals often downplay injury severity so as to return soldiers to the front faster and reduce compensation.

As of early 2025, only 12% of Tomsk’s mobilized, 251 men, had been formally recognized as veterans, a classification that entitles them to state benefits. Fourteen of those veterans have since been killed in action. Under Russian law, veteran status is due to all mobilized personnel, whether or not they return home.

There is no fixed term of service for mobilized troops. Soldiers remain in the army until a presidential decree ends their service. And three years after the initial call-up, no such decree has been signed.

You Might Also Like

FSB's New Treason Trap
  • September 16, 2025

FSB's New Treason Trap

Russia has opened over 100 "light treason" cases in under two years, many born from FSB operations.
A Civic Duty?
  • September 14, 2025

A Civic Duty?

A local Russian leader opened a new kindergarten by calling on citizens to be fruitful and multiply.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

A Taste of Chekhov
December 24, 2022

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

The Latchkey Murders
July 01, 2015

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955