War from Within: Mobilized Soldiers, Conscripts, and Their Families
War comes to Russia's regions not only through television images. It arrives in the form of a summons, a letter from a military unit, a report of death, or a missing person's name. This collection of "NotMoscow Speaks" features materials about those affected by war from within: mobilized and conscripted soldiers, relatives searching for missing persons and demanding the return of loved ones, people who fled the war, and cities where its consequences are visible every day.
2026
A Yearning for Freedom: How One Russian Deserter Escaped the Army Twice
The story of a man who twice fled the army to avoid participating in the war with Ukraine and served time for it.
2025
The holiday is coming to us...
A NeMoskva correspondent spent the New Year holidays in the frontline towns of Belgorod and Shebekino and spoke with people.
2023
"Wait, he's not on the list."
How families search for those missing in action during the war: Moscow volunteers received more than 2,000 search requests in three months.
2024
"They won't reach us."
The story of conscript Artyom Dobrodumsky, who wanted to "pay his debt to his homeland" and move on with his life, but died.
2023
"Anonymous, useless, forgotten"
A report from the Gusinobrodskoye Cemetery in Novosibirsk, where 243 Wagner PMC fighters are buried.
2023
The story of conscript Andrei Lazhiev, who died under unknown circumstances.
"I gave the army a living and healthy guy, and they're giving me back a corpse in a box": words from the article.
2023
"The second wave of mobilization could begin in August or September."
A conversation with Sergei Krivenko, director of the human rights group "Citizen. Army. Law."
2024
"I can do anything"
How the state becomes "accomplice" to the crimes committed by former participants in the war in Ukraine.
2024
We have nowhere to go anyway...
Bryansk is trying to pretend that nothing is happening, even though the war is going on right next door.
2023
"They stick their hands out of the trenches to get wounded and rest."
Relatives of those mobilized are demanding that their fathers, husbands, and sons be returned home.
2024
"Fighters go off in groups on missions and disappear..."
Relatives of soldiers from unit 41698 in Donetsk have been unable to find their loved ones for months.
2023
"My son drew a tank." Anna Zueva, vice president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, on war and peace.
Buryatia journalist Anna Zueva, vice president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, left Russia in March 2023.