Kathrine Frich
Why are boys barely out of school signing up for such dangerous roles?
Turning eighteen is supposed to mark the start of adult life.
For most teenagers, it means finishing school, picking up a first job, or planning for college.
In one country, however, blowing out those birthday candles now brings a much darker reality.
Straight to the front
According to the Daily Express, anger is growing across Russia as teenagers who were still children when the Ukraine war began are now coming home in coffins. The latest loss to spark outrage is Alisher Svirin.
He was just 14 years old when Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and he is believed to be the first soldier born in 2008 to die in the fighting.
Within days of turning 18, Svirin was operating a machine gun for a motorised rifle brigade. His death sparked immediate backlash in Pavlovsky Posad, his hometown near Moscow.
On social media, local resident Svetlana Serezhkina wrote: “Why?! A young soldier who’d never seen combat… Still just a child.” Another resident named Andrei added: “It’s such a shame they let him sign a contract.”
Hundreds of teen deaths
Svirin is far from the only young recruit to lose his life. Joint figures from BBC Russian and the exiled outlet Mediazona show that more than 200 Russian soldiers aged 18 have died since the invasion started.
And because missing troops and separatist recruits do not appear on official lists, insiders tell the Daily Express that the real toll is likely much higher.
On VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook, pages like the pro-war Orthodox Christian group Synodik have turned into digital graveyards where mothers post prayers beside photos of their teenage sons. One of those faces belongs to Kirill Tretyakov.
Born in 2007, the college student signed a military contract six days after his 18th birthday and died on September 22 while laying obstacles as a combat engineer.
Other teenagers were given roles they were nowhere near ready to handle.
In August, 19-year-old Nikolai Ruzov from annexed Crimea died while leading an assault squad without prior experience, while 19-year-old David Fedorov was killed in October working as a combat driver without a licence after police in Cheboksary reportedly pressured him into enlisting.
Blinded by state propaganda
Why are boys barely out of school signing up for such dangerous roles? Speaking to The Moscow Times, an adolescent psychologist explained that state messaging and youthful confidence make a deadly mix.
“The risk of being killed is very high, but young people don’t think about that,” the specialist told the outlet. “When you’re young, you feel like life will last forever, like you’re invincible. Teenagers lack the networks that could help them think critically about the war.”
Meanwhile, television host Vladimir Solovyov has told state media viewers that “life is greatly overrated”.
With Ukraine’s General Staff estimating Russian losses at over 1.58 million troops as of October 28, the Kremlin is now using patriotic school lessons to draw in the next wave of teenage recruits.
