Kathrine Frich
A recorded phone call between a captured Russian soldier and his mother has drawn wide attention after being posted online by Ukrainian officials.
The exchange revealed stark tensions inside one family as the soldier disavowed the war and rejected the idea of returning home.
A strained conversation
The video, shared by former Ukrainian deputy interior minister Anton Herashchenko, shows Ruslan Dmitriev calling from Ukrainian captivity.
Early in the call he tries to speak to his mother about his situation and about Russia’s treatment of its troops.
“What do you want from me?” she asked. Ruslan responded: “Don’t you want to talk to me, Mom? Don’t you care that I’m in captivity? That I’m alive?”
He told her he had warned Kazakh men not to enlist and said his unit had been sent on so-called “meat raids,” describing conditions as brutal.
Rejecting a return home
The recording then captures Dmitriev stating plainly that he no longer sees a future in Russia.
“I won’t return to Russia. I won’t fight for Russia. I don’t intend to fight on the Ukrainian side, and I won’t return to Russia. If I go anywhere, it will be to Kazakhstan,” he said.
“I won’t return to a country where I’m not treated like a human being,” he added.
His mother’s response was sharp: “Are you crazy?” She warned him that what he was suggesting amounted to desertion.
Ruslan also said only half of his small group had survived. He contrasted his treatment in captivity with how he had been handled by his commanders.
“Do you understand the difference, Mom?” he asked. “Yes, I do,” she replied.
Fears of being sent back
Dmitriev insisted his decision was final.
He claimed that returning to Russia would put him straight back on the front and that his only chance of staying alive was to remain in Ukrainian custody or seek asylum elsewhere.
The conversation turned to financial pressures at home. Ruslan asked if she preferred to have her son alive or to receive compensation if he died.
She answered: “What does money have to do with this? Arina just squeezes it out of me. And I tell her, ‘How am I supposed to pay? I don’t have anything myself.’”
Sources: Anton Herashchenko (X), Onet, Digi24
