from France, Russian deserters call on their former brothers in arms to flee the army

According to the NGO Idite Lessom (Get the hell out), some 500 Russian deserters are currently recorded in Kazakhstan and Armenia and thousands more are hiding in Russia.

On February 24, 2022, Lieutenant Alexander participated, horrified, in the invasion of Ukraine. Two and a half years later, he was one of six Russian deserters who had recently arrived in France, who, after a journey strewn with pitfalls, called on their former brothers in arms to flee the army.

France agreed to welcome them, after months of advocacy and scrupulous verification of their stories by several NGOs, including Russia-Libertés. A decision “unpublished” in Europe, according to the president of this organization, Olga Prokopieva, who calls on Paris to “go further in welcoming Russian deserters” and other European countries “follow the example” French.

The six men, finally safe, now dream of a peaceful, integrated life, but remain determined to make themselves heard, whether they are in Paris, Caen (Calvados) or Metz (Moselle). Together, they have been working on a project for months, “Proshaï oruzhie” (“Farewell to Arms”), in which soldiers speak anonymously about the war.

Russia “can’t win” facing Ukraine with an army “who tries to plagiarize modernity, but whose methods date from the USSR”quips Mikhaïl, who wishes “to transmit” his beliefs to his “former colleagues” for the “call to desert”. “Maybe, thanks to my example, someone will be inspired and want to leave the army”believes for his part Alexandre, for whom “the weaker the army at the front, the fewer people there are, the faster the war will end and Ukraine will win.”

According to the NGO Idite Lessom (Get Away), which helps them, some 500 Russian deserters are currently recorded in Kazakhstan and Armenia and thousands more are hiding in Russia.