Ukraine's Kursk incursion tests young Russian conscripts' mettle

The last time Liana spoke to her husband Husain before he was captured by Ukrainian troops, he said what he always told her: "Everything is fine."

Husain, a 21-year-old conscripted soldier, was dispatched with his Russian army unit in mid-July to a base in the western Kursk region that he said was 15 km from the frontier with Ukraine.

When Husain phoned his wife on August 4, he said the situation there seemed calm, Liana told Reuters. The only sign of the war in Ukraine was the buzz of drones overhead, protecting soldiers as they slept.

Two days later, thousands of Ukrainian troops smashed through the border into Kursk in a lightning attack that took Moscow by surprise.

For about three weeks, Liana heard nothing from Husain. Then, on Sunday, he called her from a Moscow hospital and said he had been released with more than 100 other Russian prisoners of war who had been captured in Kursk.

Husain told her his unit had come under heavy Ukrainian shelling, and that he and two other conscripts were the unit's only survivors.

Reuters could not independently verify Husain's account.

"He thought he was going to die," said Liana, 19, who spoke on condition that the couple's surnames not be used for fear of recriminations.

Liana is relieved that Husain, with whom she has an 18-month-old son, is alive. But she fears that her husband, who worked as a builder, will be sent back to fight in Kursk.

"He is still young, he just started to live," she said.

Russian men are required to complete a year of military service before the age of 30, with about 280,000 called up each year. Ukraine's incursion has reopened public debate about whether raw and untested recruits should be thrown into battle.

Less than two weeks after sending troops into Ukraine in 2022, President Vladimir Putin said: "I emphasise that conscript soldiers are not participating in hostilities and will not participate in them."

The following day, Russia's defence ministry acknowledged some conscripts were fighting in Ukraine. Putin ordered an investigation and promised to punish the officials responsible.

Over two years later, investigations by the BBC Russian Service and independent Russian outlet Important Stories show hundreds of conscripts have been sent to Kursk to defend against Ukraine's advance. Dozens have gone missing or were captured.

Reuters confirmed the deaths of two conscripts from accounts posted by their families on social media.

Artyom Dobrodumsky won medals in children's karate competitions in the southern Rostov region, and graduated from a cadet school. He was 22 when he died in Kursk.

Daniil Rubtsov, who was raised in northwest Russia, received his army notice in December 2023. He hoped to become a police investigator, his mother told Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. He died in the Kursk region on August 7, aged 18.

Russian civil society groups that advise men on how to avoid military service say they are concerned about pressure on conscripts to sign contracts to become professional soldiers.

Alexei Tabalov, founder of legal support group Shkola Priziyvnika (Conscript School), said conscripts, many of them teenagers, are highly susceptible to such coercion.

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