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

The Little Humpbacked Horse
November 03, 2014

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

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.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

Murder at the Dacha
July 01, 2013

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

Woe From Wit (bilingual)
June 20, 2017

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

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.

 
Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

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