A draftee from Russia’s Irkutsk region has been found hanged near Luhansk, the Public Verdict human rights organisation reports, citing his family.

Alexander T., 35, (his full name is not disclosed) was drafted for the Ukraine war in the autumn of 2022. On 11 March 2023, he was brought before the Luhansk military commandant’s office. According to the draftee, the authorities at the office were forcing him to sign a paper, confessing to a subversive act that, according to him, he did not commit, threatened “to make him missing action”, and confiscated his documents.

Alexander was let go on 18 March. He then managed to contact his relatives to warn them that “some document is going to be sent, and that his family should not believe it, he did not commit these things”. He was later detained again and never contacted them again. On 19 May, Alexander’s family was notified of his death. The notice specified that his death on 20 March “was not related to military duties”, while the cause of death was put down as “mechanical asphyxiation from compression of neck organs by a noose”.

Investigative agencies have never responded to appeals from Alexander’s family, the human rights activists note.