Russia's Wound Market

The independent Russian outlet Vaznye Istorii reviewed military court records and found that Russian soldiers have maimed themselves and one another to claim state compensation for combat wounds. 

In October 2023, battalion commander Ikrom Mubashirov, a decorated officer who had served more than eight years in the Russian army, drove a fellow serviceman, identified in court records only as M., to a wooded area outside Donetsk. Another soldier met them there with a homemade explosive device and detonated it near M.

M. went to a military medical post with shrapnel wounds and said he had been injured in combat. Four days later, the men repeated the scheme. By the end of the year, M. had received R6 million ($82,100) for wounds he claimed were sustained in Ukraine. He gave half to Mubashirov, who kept R1 million ($13,700) and divided the remaining R2 million ($27,400) among accomplices.

Investigators said Mubashirov had several such clients. At least twice, the explosions were allegedly carried out by his younger cousin, Lt. Muboriz Mubashirov. Prosecutors accused the senior Mubashirov of stealing R9 million ($123,200), including R2.5 million ($34,200) he allegedly kept for himself. Court records show the Defense Ministry filed a civil claim against 30 defendants seeking R144 million rubles ($1.97 million).

The Mubashirov case drew little public attention, unlike a similar case involving soldiers from the 83rd Brigade. That case became widely known because of its defendants, including Lt. Col. Konstantin Frolov, who appeared in propaganda reports about battlefield acts that investigators now say were fake, and Col. Artyom Gorodilov, who has been linked to the killings of civilians during Russia’s occupation of Bucha.

According to Vaznye Istory, since 2022 some 2,600 similar fraud cases have reached military garrison courts. One in five involved fraudulently obtaining state benefits or payments. The peak came in 2025, when courts received 238 such cases, more than in the previous three years combined. Reportedly, fraud cases involving military payouts have risen 4.3-fold since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Vaznye Istory found at least 20 cases in available rulings in which soldiers forged documents, deliberately injured themselves, or passed off noncombat injuries as battlefield wounds. One soldier, 32-year-old Anzor Brantov of Maikop, claimed he injured his knee while fleeing mortar fire during a mission. His unit said he had not taken part in combat that day. Brantov later admitted he had rammed his knee hard to simulate an injury. He received a certificate diagnosing a closed knee injury and later collected R3 million ($41,000). He gave R2 million ($27,400) to a fellow soldier, who split it with intermediaries.

Others used more drastic methods. Senior Lt. Maksim Gul, 42, who had received a medal for bravery, persuaded a military medic to help him leave the front, saying he had a sick child at home. The medic injected him with a painkiller and cut his left forearm with a scalpel. Gul received paperwork describing a shrapnel wound, returned to a hospital in his native Khabarovsk region, and later received R3 million ($41,000).

Russian soldiers also shoot themselves or ask comrades to do it, one former serviceman told journalists. "There are schemes like this all over the army," he said, adding that some soldiers seek not only money but a way to survive and spend time in a hospital.

Until November 2024, any wound resulted in an R3 million payout ($41,000), regardless of severity. New rules link compensation to the injury: R3 million for severe wounds, R1 million ($13,700) for light wounds, R100,000 ($1,400) for other injuries, and R4 million ($54,750) if the wound causes disability.

For soldiers from poorer regions, these sums are life-changing. For instance, Russia’s average monthly wage in 2025 was about R100,000 ($1,400), and in the North Caucasus, it was about R55,000 ($750). A fake wound can also bring medals, and, with them, further benefits. Russia’s Hero of Russia title, for example, carries monthly payments of about R100,000, indexed annually.