https://novayagazeta.eu Говорим как есть. Пишем о происходящем в России, Украине и Европе. Новости, аналитика, мнения экспертов, специальные репортажи и журналистские расследования. en Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:37:28 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/11/we-are-russians-and-god-is-with-us-en https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/11/we-are-russians-and-god-is-with-us-en Syuzhety · Obshchestvo Lisitsyn Vladislav On 6 September, a religious procession took place in Moscow that, despite foul weather and obvious poor planning, drew roughly 100,000 people, according to Interior Ministry estimates. Participants carried holy relics, including a fragment of the remains of a medieval prince that were “miraculously” unearthed in the Kremlin recently. Novaya Gazeta Europe walked alongside other attendees. To our correspondent, the event felt like a combination of a major church holiday and a new iteration of the ultranationalist “Russian March” that authorities outlawed in the 2010s. Here’s how it went.

‘We’ll win again now’
Before I’ve even left the metro, I spot a priest making the sign of the cross over a group of passengers in the station. As the stream of people nears the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, where organisers set the meeting point, the surrounding space becomes filled with religious and patriotic symbols.
A group of tense-looking men carries flags bearing a portrait of 14th-century prince Dmitry Donskoy and the slogan “We won at Kulikovo Field, we’ll win again now” — a reference to a 1380 battle in which a coalition of forces from Russian principalities defeated Tatar forces. A middle-aged woman in a blue-and-white headscarf explains that her small Orthodox movement chose Dmitry Donskoy as its patron saint long before the discovery of his relics made him “trendy”.
“Our leader, Andrey Yuryevich, says people might think we planned this out. But we didn’t plan anything — it’s simply that the Lord sees all and governs all,” she says.
A small bottleneck forms at the metal detectors, where police search the march participants. A man in knee-high boots and swamp-green pants cinched with a large tasseled sash struggles to manoeuvre a child’s stroller through the narrow frames. He blocks the way for many people, but sympathy for the young father clearly outweighs any irritation.
“Now that’s a proper family — traditional values,” remarks a man in a T-shirt that reads “Russian Community”, the name of a prominent far-right nationalist group.
When the line grows restless, someone shouts, “Christ is risen!” and a chorus of voices responds, “Truly he is risen!” It’s strange to hear an Easter greeting in September, but I realise this is how the crowd expresses solidarity given the authorities’ ban on political chants.
“We are Orthodox, and God is with us!” an elderly woman in a mesh headscarf exclaims. A man nearby adds: “And if anyone doesn’t understand that, the Russian Community will explain it to them.”
Past the metal detectors, a police officer urges people over a loudspeaker to keep moving without stopping, and the crowd slowly files beneath the bridge toward the Kremlin. Volunteers hand out bottled water and pamphlets explaining the meaning of the event and offering QR codes to download a prayer book, learn more about Orthodoxy, or find a nearby church.
A priest in his fifties, in a threadbare cassock, clutches a large photograph of a dilapidated church in the Moscow region, the restoration for which he’s been raising money for years. A stern-faced woman carries a placard for the “Orthodox Entrepreneurs” association. A pensioner with a backpack from Moscow Mayor Sobyanin’s “Active Longevity” programme has a small icon tucked into the fold of her headscarf.
The dominant colour in the crowd is black, thanks to the shirts and banners of the “Russian Community” and its fellow far-right group “Northern Man”. There’s also the red of the ultra-Orthodox group Sorok Sorokov, Cossacks, and military cadets; the lemon-yellow vests of the far-right Union of the Russian People; and the green of military uniforms glinting with gold and silver combat decorations.
‘Some people believe in Putin more than God’
The domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour gleam against the overcast Moscow sky as the crowd inches toward them. But after barely a kilometre, the movement grinds to a complete halt.
Screens in front of the crowd begin broadcasting the patriarch’s liturgy live from the cathedral. We hear the service and a sermon in which Patriarch Kirill urges parents “not to spare their children” when they want to pray and take part in religious processions. People cross themselves. A light rain begins to fall.
When the broadcast ends, there’s a long stretch when nothing happens. My section of the procession stands frozen for 10 minutes, then 20. Someone tries to push forward, causing a scuffle. A woman ahead of me angrily complains that “pushy types” have no respect for anyone around them, then launches into how badly organised this year’s march is compared to last year’s.
Someone shouts from further back, “We are Russians, and God is with us!” — probably the 20th time I’ve heard it today. The overtly nationalist edge of this chant clearly unsettles an elderly woman in a patterned raincoat walking near me.
“But so many Tatars are Orthodox these days,” she says, puzzled, to her friend. “And Armenians too, aren’t they? So does that make Tatars and Armenians all Russian now?”
A bearded, middle-aged man carrying an icon of the 13th-century prince Alexander Nevsky, dressed in embroidered baggy trousers and looking like a character from a Slavic folk tale, tells an acquaintance about patriotic summer camps that supposedly draw people “from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad”. There, he says, women look after small children and discuss psychology while men and teenagers practice tactical coordination by playing with airsoft guns. Afterward everyone goes to the banya together and puts on amateur theatre.
The crowd presses in so tightly that all I can do is watch the banners waving ahead. Right at the centre is a flag from the pro-Kremlin National Liberation Movement bearing the image of a youthful Putin and the words “For the Motherland! For Sovereignty! For Putin!” The Virgin Mary and various depictions of Christ surround the Russian president from every side, and I’m clearly not the only one who finds this a bit much.
“Honestly, what does Putin have to do with any of this,” a woman of about 35 in a cat-print headscarf laughs quietly to her friend. “If you ask me, some people around here believe in Putin more than they believe in God.”
The rain turns into a downpour. Many open umbrellas and offer to share them with neighbours. Along with the woman in the cat headscarf and her friend, I watch a livestream of the procession on my phone via the Tsargrad website; apparently the marchers further ahead have had better luck and are actually moving.
At the head of the procession are the patriarch and senior clergy, and just behind them, six priests carrying on their shoulders a golden reliquary bearing the remains of Dmitry Donskoy. The relics were supposedly found by chance this summer in a sarcophagus during restoration work in the Kremlin’s Archangel Cathedral.
The discovery caused a sensation. Putin called the find miraculous, Patriarch Kirill declared it a sign, and now the prince’s remains are set to be taken to the front line in the war against Ukraine to boost the morale of Russian troops. During the citywide procession, the relic fragment was carried alongside two other venerated icons before being returned to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, where it was put on display for veneration.
Sadly, I couldn’t get so much as a glimpse of the reliquary, either in person or on a livestream, thanks to the signal jammers and the rain streaming down my phone screen.
When the procession starts moving again, well after noon, I catch myself thinking that the last time I saw this many people on Moscow’s streets was at mass opposition rallies.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Thu, 10 Sep 2026 16:25:19 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/10/russia-detains-former-british-embassy-guard-on-treason-charges-a-day-after-uk-charges-man-over-alleged-russian-sabotage-plot-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/10/russia-detains-former-british-embassy-guard-on-treason-charges-a-day-after-uk-charges-man-over-alleged-russian-sabotage-plot-en-news Novosti · Mezhdunarodnaya politika Evropa Novaya gazeta Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) says it has detained a former security guard at the British Embassy in Moscow and has charged him with treason, an offence that can carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment. The agency has not disclosed the man’s name.
According to the FSB’s account, the former guard was an agent of Ukraine’s SBU service, acting on instructions from Ukrainian blogger Dmytro Karpenko, known online as “Apostle Dmytro”. The agency alleges the man gathered information on embassy staff, including their home addresses, as well as details of their meetings and travel. It also says he studied the embassy’s security arrangements and the events held there.
The FSB claims Ukrainian intelligence intended to use this information to plan an attack on the British ambassador and other diplomats, with Kyiv planning to pin the blame on Moscow in order to draw the United Kingdom into direct armed conflict with Russia and secure additional ammunition supplies. The agency released a video of the detained man in which he repeats the account the FSB has given. The clip blurs his face.
The FSB has not released the suspect’s name or said when he was detained. The independent outlet Mediazona noted that a Moscow court ordered a man named Marat Droganov to be held in pretrial detention in late July, and that his birth year matches the one given in the FSB’s statement. Before his arrest in the treason case, Droganov had been subjected to series of so-called “carousel arrests” — in which a person is repeatedly re-arrested after being released from jail — on minor charges.
Citing data from leaked recruitment-site records, Mediazona said Droganov had worked as a security guard since at least the 2010s, though it could not confirm whether his work was linked to the British embassy. Journalists did find photos on his social media showing him in guard’s uniform alongside British royal guard officers, with the Kremlin visible in the background.
The case emerged a day after London police announced the arrest of Joshua Cammidge, 31, a UK resident accused of breaching the National Security Act by cooperating with Russian intelligence. Investigators allege Cammidge had been in contact with a GRU-linked volunteer unit that recruits people to carry out sabotage and other operations.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Thu, 10 Sep 2026 15:05:06 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/10/russian-region-blurs-journalists-face-in-apparent-retaliation-for-asking-governor-about-promised-maternity-ward-funds-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/10/russian-region-blurs-journalists-face-in-apparent-retaliation-for-asking-governor-about-promised-maternity-ward-funds-en-news Novosti · Obshchestvo Evropa Novaya gazeta The press service of the administration of Russia’s Vladimir region blurred the face of a local newspaper editor in official photos from a visit made by the governor, days after he threatened to sue the journalist over questions about a shuttered maternity ward.
The edit was first pointed out by local Telegram channel Pulse 33 Region: in photos the regional government released of Governor Alexander Avdeev’s trip to the town of Kolchugino, the face of Elena Frolova, editor-in-chief of the local outlet Kolchuginskiye Vesti, had been blurred out.
The blurring came after a tense exchange between Frolova and Avdeev at a meeting with journalists in Kolchugino, according to the outlet 7x7. Frolova reminded the governor that he had promised 167 million rubles to keep the towns maternity ward open, but the money never came through and the ward closed anyway. She said the closure had already led at least one local woman to have an abortion.
Avdeev responded by threatening to sue her twice over. “Yelena Frolova, if you find a quote where I said 167 million rubles would be allocated, if you find my quote, come to me. If not, I’ll take you to court a second time,” he said.
The outlet Chesnok reported that Avdeev had in fact given the 167 million ruble figure back in May. He also said he would sue if Frolova could not produce the woman she said had had an abortion because of the ward’s closure.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:44:58 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/germany-could-share-data-on-draft-age-ukrainian-men-with-kyiv-foreign-minister-suggests-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/germany-could-share-data-on-draft-age-ukrainian-men-with-kyiv-foreign-minister-suggests-en-news Novosti · Mezhdunarodnaya politika Evropa Novaya gazeta German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has backed a proposal to help Kyiv identify Ukrainian men of military age currently living in Germany, he said in an interview with Bild published Tuesday.
Wadephul said the German government could assist Ukraine in locating citizens eligible for military service. “We know who lives here: who receives social benefits, who is registered here, who holds a residence permit,” he said. Sharing this data, he argued, would allow the Ukrainian government to send draft summonses directly to eligible men residing in Germany.
The minister insisted any return would have to be voluntary, without direct coercion from Berlin. He noted that “the overwhelming majority of the German population supports our policy on Ukraine.”
Wadephul’s comments echo a similar call from Markus Söder, leader of the Christian Social Union party, made in an interview with the Rheinische Post. Söder argued that as the war continues, it is “entirely legitimate” to discuss sending Ukrainian men fit for military service back home. He said this would both bolster Ukraine’s defence and ease the strain on Germany’s social welfare system, noting that the employment rate among Ukrainian refugees in Germany lags well behind that of other EU countries.
The debate comes after EU countries agreed in July to extend temporary protection for Ukrainians across the bloc until 4 March 2028, with new applicants required to provide proof that they comply with their military obligations in Ukraine.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:21:27 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/putin-endorsed-a-plan-to-let-russians-deemed-unfit-for-service-join-anti-drone-units-what-could-go-wrong-en https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/putin-endorsed-a-plan-to-let-russians-deemed-unfit-for-service-join-anti-drone-units-what-could-go-wrong-en Syuzhety · Voyna v Ukraine Glukhova Natalya On 5 September, Vladimir Putin voiced support for a proposal to let some Russians classified as Category D — “unfit for military service” — join anti-drone units on a volunteer basis. Experts fear the policy would be unlikely to stay limited to volunteers. With help from human rights advocates at the organisation Get Lost, Novaya Gazeta Europe explains who is classified as Category D, whether current law allows them to fight, and why this new initiative risks becoming a tool of pressure against them.
What happened?
On 5 September, Yevgeny Poddubny, a war correspondent for Russian state media, asked Vladimir Putin to allow volunteers with a Category D rating to serve in regional units tasked with defending against drone attacks. According to Poddubny, wounded servicemen with this classification had approached him with the request, believing themselves capable of handling tasks away from the front line.
“[They would be,] for instance, in regional units, in BARS [Combat Army Reserve of the Country] units defending the sky, destroying drones. Obviously not everyone. And obviously there's a core group of volunteers who, having weighed their own abilities, are asking, as an exception, to be allowed to serve in regional units that defend sites from drones. This clearly isn't about the front line — it's about their own city, their own village, their workplace,” Poddubny said.
Putin replied: “Zhenya, I support it.”
Who falls into Category D?
Fitness for military service in Russia is determined under a government document known as the Schedule of Diseases, which sets out five categories in total.
Category D is reserved for the most severe conditions — those considered wholly incompatible with military service. These can include consequences of injuries and fractures, serious damage to the brain or spinal cord, severe heart failure and other serious cardiac conditions, certain cancers, severe psychiatric disorders, and advanced cirrhosis, among other conditions.
A diagnosis alone, however, does not automatically result in a Category D rating: a military medical commission assesses its severity, stage, and the degree to which it limits a person's functioning. That is why the law contains no single, short list of Category D illnesses.
There’s no precise data on how many Russians currently hold Category D status, according to Darya Berg, head of relief and evacuation at Get Lost.
Can Category D holders legally fight already?
Only people rated Category A, B or C (“limited fitness) can be drafted for military or alternative civilian service, or accepted for contract service. Signing an ordinary military contract with a Category D rating is not currently possible.
But Category D does not indicate that a person is physically incapable of holding a weapon, walking, or working at all. Berg notes that the health of people in this category varies enormously: it is assigned not only after severe wounds, but also for psychiatric illness, serious heart problems, vision impairment, and other conditions.
“Some of them may be capable of certain tasks. Others physically can't carry a weapon or be in a combat environment. So you can't just take everyone with Category D and declare them fit for some new form of service,” Berg says.
Separate Defence Ministry health requirements apply to volunteer units such as BARS, which Poddubny referenced. But recruits still undergo a medical examination before signing a contract, and even people rated Category B — “fit with minor restrictions” — are sometimes turned away. Under the current rules, people with Category D conditions cannot be accepted at all.
“So Putin's verbal approval alone isn't enough. For the initiative to actually work, the state will have to change the existing rules,” Berg says.
What's the danger?
In Berg's view, the main danger is that it blurs the meaning of Category D, creating a risk that people officially declared entirely unfit for military service will first be persuaded, and then pressured, into taking part in the war.
“This category isn't assigned lightly. It means a person is entirely unfit for military service on health grounds,” she says.
For now, Berg notes, the initiative is being presented as an exception for a handful of volunteers who themselves want to take part in combat operations. But she fears the practice could later expand.
She is particularly wary of promises that Category D volunteers will be assigned only to air-defence, drone-defence, or rear-area roles.
“We get an enormous number of complaints from people who were promised one position and then, after signing the contract, were sent to the front and into assaults. People have been badly wounded and killed,” she says.
According to Berg, there is no way to guarantee that someone who signs a contract will remain in the promised role rather than ending up on the front line.
Will authorities proceed with the initiative?
The initiative is unlikely to remain just a statement, Berg believes, since Putin publicly endorsed Poddubny's proposal. As of 7 September, however, no directives, draft laws, or new rules on the matter had been published.
“My sense is that there probably will be a follow-up. And it wouldn't even require passing a major separate law — the Defence Ministry could simply change its own selection rules for volunteer units,” she explains.
Human rights advocates, Berg says, have already received reports of people rated “limited fitness” or “unfit for service” being pressured to sign contracts. In November 2024, reports emerged of round-ups of conscripts in Moscow, including people with conditions that could otherwise exempt them from service. Young men were detained at home, on the street, and in the metro, then taken to police stations; the diagnoses cited included asthma, hypertension, severe (grade III) flat feet, atopic dermatitis, angioedema, and psychiatric disorders.
Get Lost has also received reports of detentions involving people holding military ID cards, deferments, or disability status, as well as people with non-conscriptable conditions such as asthma and psychiatric illness. According to the outlet Cherta, Get Lost recorded 73 round-ups in November 2024 alone, and 125 between 1 October and 9 December of that year.
In May 2025, the outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti reported on a disabled Volgograd resident with a psychiatric condition who, his relatives said, was forced to sign a contract and sent to war despite his Category D rating.
Why now?
It’s impossible to say for certain what’s driving Putin's support for involving Category D citizens in anti-drone defence, Berg says. But in her view, the state has been steadily widening the pool of people it tries to draw into contract service.
“People are being picked up off the street and out of workplaces; conscripts and reservists are under pressure, and now contracts are being offered to people with serious illnesses. So the idea that this is about a manpower shortage and a search for additional resources looks plausible,” she says.
Ivan Chuviliaev, another Get Lost representative, agrees. In his view, Russian authorities are searching for yet another pool of people to recruit for the war. Contracts, he notes, were first pushed heavily on students; now it is the turn of people with health issues.
“The practice of overlooking fitness ratings when signing contracts already exists — people have been going to the front for four years now with every imaginable diagnosis, up to and including HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis,” Chuviliaev told Novaya Gazeta Europe.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:37:04 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/putin-assured-trump-that-russia-is-not-planning-to-attack-europe-kremlin-aide-says-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/09/putin-assured-trump-that-russia-is-not-planning-to-attack-europe-kremlin-aide-says-en-news Novosti · Mezhdunarodnaya politika Evropa Novaya gazeta Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone on Tuesday following a visit to Moscow and Kyiv by Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner over the weekend. The conversation lasted about an hour and was “constructive and frank”, Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov told reporters.
Trump stressed the need to bring Russia’s war against Ukraine to an end as soon as possible, according to Ushakov’s account of the call. He said ending the conflict would allow Moscow and Washington to restore trade and economic ties, and that he wanted to achieve a breakthrough before the end of his presidential term.
Putin, for his part, endorsed the idea of a “constructive partnership” between Russia and the United States. He briefed Trump on Russia’s assessment of the situation on the front line and outlined what he believed Washington could do to help end the war, though Ushakov did not specify what proposals Putin had raised.
The two leaders also discussed media reports about alleged Russian plans to attack Europe. “Given the speculation about Russia supposedly having hostile intentions toward European states, it was emphasised that we have no aggressive plans whatsoever toward Europe,” Ushakov said, relaying Putin’s remarks.
Putin and Trump also agreed to continue working on “resolving humanitarian issues, including exchanges of detainees and convicts”, Ushakov said. He did not give any details on when further exchanges might take place or how many people could be involved.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:06:23 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/08/russian-e-commerce-site-bans-teenage-warehouse-workers-after-drone-attack-kills-16-year-old-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/08/russian-e-commerce-site-bans-teenage-warehouse-workers-after-drone-attack-kills-16-year-old-en-news Novosti · Obshchestvo Evropa Novaya gazeta The Russian e-commerce company Ozon has barred workers under 18 from taking shifts at its warehouses in the cities of Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, and Ufa, independent outlet Verstka reports. The move was reported in the wake of a Ukrainian strike on the company’s Belgorod site that killed a deaf 16-year-old.
According to Verstka, employees younger than 18 said they have been unable to book shifts at the affected warehouses since late August. In a chat group for staff at the Ufa facility, underage workers asked when shifts would reopen to them; other employees reportedly replied that the restriction would remain in place for an “unspecified period”.
The support service for Ozon’s gig work platform, Ozon Job, confirmed the restriction to employees who spoke with Verstka, saying it would not affect workers’ internal ratings. “As of 27 August in Ufa, and 1 September in Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk, it is not technically possible to book new shift slots for underage users,” a support representative said, according to Verstka. “Existing bookings will also be cancelled, so we ask you not to come to the site.”
On 30 August, Ukrainian forces struck Ozon’s logistics hub in Belgorod, killing two people, including a 16-year-old deaf schoolboy who had taken a summer job with the retailer.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Tue, 08 Sep 2026 09:13:34 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/08/russias-buryatia-raises-alert-level-over-livestock-disease-outbreak-in-neighbouring-region-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/08/russias-buryatia-raises-alert-level-over-livestock-disease-outbreak-in-neighbouring-region-en-news Novosti · Obshchestvo Evropa Novaya gazeta Authorities in Russia’s Republic of Buryatia have declared a state of heightened readiness amid an outbreak of lumpy skin disease among cattle in the neighbouring Irkutsk region, Governor Alexey Tsydenov announced on Tuesday.
Round-the-clock veterinary checkpoints have been set up along Buryatia’s borders with the Irkutsk and Zabaykalsky regions, where joint teams from the veterinary service, the state agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, and the Interior Ministry will inspect vehicles to prevent the pathogen from entering via meat, livestock, or animal feed. Tsydenov urged residents not to conceal illness among their animals and not to attempt to transport or sell livestock on their own.
The outbreak has already caused a dispute in the Irkutsk region, where residents of several villages say veterinary authorities imposed quarantine measures on 6 September after claiming to have found lumpy skin disease in local herds, but without ever showing test results confirming the diagnosis. Officials have blamed the outbreak on the illegal import of sheep and goats and said more than 100 infected animals would be culled.
Veterinary epidemiologist Svetlana Shchepetkina has pointed out that lumpy skin disease affects only cattle, not the other species being culled, and that it is treatable. She said the outbreak more likely involves foot-and-mouth disease.
According to the Telegram channel BG Irkutsk, the carcasses of seized cows have already been brought for incineration to a site in the dry bed of the Sarafanka River. The newspaper Baikalskaya Sibir has asked environmental prosecutors to evaluate the legality of burying animal remains in a riverbed.
The outlet Baikal People reported that 14 cows and five pigs had already been put down in two of the villages and will soon be incinerated.
Authorities have offered owners compensation of 304 rubles (€3) per kilogram of live weight for cattle, 308 rubles for sheep and goats, and 190 rubles (€2) for pigs. Residents have demanded higher payouts and called for the burial site to be moved farther from their village.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:42:49 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/07/youll-see-her-in-10-years-minimum-russian-fsb-disappears-schoolteacher-in-ukraines-occupied-kherson-region-en-news https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/07/youll-see-her-in-10-years-minimum-russian-fsb-disappears-schoolteacher-in-ukraines-occupied-kherson-region-en-news Novosti · Obshchestvo Evropa Novaya gazeta Officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) abducted a 52-year-old history teacher in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region on 5 August, and her whereabouts remain unknown, according to the independent outlet Important Stories.
Hanna Pyrozhenko was seized in the village of Pershokostiantynivka after somebody anonymously reported her to authorities, her relatives told journalists. Security officers confiscated her phone and laptop before driving her away to an unknown location. They reportedly told her family they would not see her again for “at least 10 years”. Her relatives believe she is being held in a facility near the city of Henichesk.
“They just took a person who is guilty of nothing, who never did anyone any harm. She followed one route — from home to my grandmother’s, to her brother’s, and back. She didn’t go anywhere else, didn’t travel, didn’t talk to anyone,” a relative of Pyrozhenko said.
The day after the arrest, Pyrozhenko’s husband set out to search for her. According to Crimean Tatar activists, security officers beat him, tortured him with an electric shock device, confiscated his Ukrainian documents and forced him to leave the occupied territory. Important Stories said it was unable to reach him for comment.
Officials at the Henichesk district court said Pyrozhenko is suspected of incitement to extremism. FSB officers, however, told her relatives she was under investigation on espionage charges linked to a social media repost, as well as for allegedly possessing explosives. Her family believes the case against her was fabricated.
Pyrozhenko taught history at the only school in the village. She resigned in 2022 to care for her 83-year-old mother and her 77-year-old brother, who has a disability. Security forces searched her home once before, in 2025, but brought no charges at the time.
Her mother, Lidiya Pyrozhenko, was born in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and later worked as a teacher herself. Members of the Russian occupation administration have repeatedly photographed her for propaganda purposes, and in 2025 they awarded her a commemorative medal marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany.
Новая газета. Европа — Read more]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:50:31 +0000 https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/07/how-russia-tries-to-recruit-women-into-war-by-promising-to-write-off-their-debt-en https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/07/how-russia-tries-to-recruit-women-into-war-by-promising-to-write-off-their-debt-en Syuzhety · Voyna v Ukraine Mustaeva Sonya In spring 2023, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that at least 1,100 Russian women had gone to fight in Ukraine, and that at least 52 had been killed. No official figures have been released since. Russian women are recruited in waves: according to the independent outlet Vot Tak, female quotas fill up fast regardless of region, as recruiters can barely keep up with the demand. The military seeks out women at universities, colleges, and prisons; through the online state services portal Gosuslugi and at local recruitment offices; and even via cold calls and posters.
Novaya Gazeta Europe found cases of women who shared stories of being courted by army recruiters through Gosuslugi, via calls to phone numbers found on the job recruitment site hh.ru, and through lists of people with outstanding debts.
Valentina is a 25-year-old who lives in Moscow and is currently unemployed. With a high school diploma her only qualification, she wanted to enrol in a state-run design course to learn a new skill, so she submitted an application through the Gosuslugi state services portal. However, it turned out that the course required a university degree, and her application was rejected.
“I figured, fine, I don’t qualify, whatever. Then people started calling me every other day, for a week or two. They would ask if I’d signed up for military courses; I say no. Then they’d call again and ask if I wanted to sign a [military] contract. I kept refusing,” Valentina recalls.
She started wondering how they’d even got her number.
“I realised it must be connected to the course somehow, since I hadn’t given my contact details out anywhere else. Probably because the course was run by the state,” she says.
Viktoria, a 26-year-old also from Moscow, is actively job-hunting for a position in business management. Her resume includes stints as a branch director for a major mobile carrier, the head of a network of package pickup points, an HR partner in a sales department, and a business assistant. For the past month, she’s been answering all calls from unknown numbers so as not to miss a job interview. On one of these calls, someone offered to “sign her up for a contract.”
“They called, said my full name, and said, ‘We’re calling about contract service.’ The first time, I was stunned. I asked what they meant, and they hung up,” Viktoria recalls.
But the calls didn’t stop.
“The second time they called, they introduced themselves again, said they’d found my resume on HeadHunter, and asked if I was interested in contract work,” she recalls. “Naturally, I asked what kind of contract work. They explained it was a posting to the new [annexed] border territories. I asked what the job actually involved. They said it was military contract service.”
A little later, she received a message through Gosuslugi, supposedly from bailiffs, ordering her to appear for a meeting to work out a repayment schedule. Viktoria did have an outstanding debt — just under 100,000 rubles (€990).
“Early Monday morning I got this strange message on Gosuslugi saying that if I didn’t show up to the bailiffs’ office within three days by 3pm, there would be consequences — supposedly for evading my debt. My debt is 90,000 rubles; everything else I owed had long since been paid off,” she explained.
When she arrived, Viktoria found dozens of women in the hallway, some with small children. All of them appeared to be between 20 and 35 years old. Everyone she spoke to had received the same letter, from the same bailiff, with the same appointment time.
“We queued up and went in one by one, into an office with a door that didn’t shut properly, so you could hear from the hallway what was being said inside,” she said. “It was about signing a contract: sign up, and we’ll wipe out your debt. There were women in there with debts of half a million rubles or more — easier to pressure.”
At one point, Viktoria said, she started to get scared after another woman suggested they might all be detained or forcibly transported somewhere if they refused. “And I’m standing there with my measly 90,000, thinking, how the hell did I even end up here, how did my life come to this?” Viktoria recalls.
According to her, the bailiffs told the women who showed interest that they’d be working either in the rear or as drone operators.
When it was Viktoria’s turn, she got the same pitch as everyone else:
“If I sign the contract right there, my debt gets wiped immediately, and I won't owe the state, the banks, the bailiffs — anyone — anything,” she said.
After they explained the offer, the recruiters asked how interested Viktoria was. “I batted my eyelashes and said, you know, I value my life a little more than that,” she said. “This is completely absurd, I’d rather file for bankruptcy. I actually argued with them a bit — I couldn’t believe they’d dare offer something like that for such a small debt, and that they had the nerve to try to scare me into it.”
Women in Russia’s regions have received similar offers. A woman named Svetlana Sofronescu described her experience in the comments under an Instagram post: “I had a 100,000-ruble loan debt. I’m 55, I’m a woman, I’ve partially lost some organs and my spine is falling apart. For two years they hounded me with calls and messages. They kept pushing, rudely, for me to sign a contract for the war, until I paid [the debt] off.”
Maria, from Vladivostok, shared her story on Instagram as well. “In late February I got a notification on Gosuslugi telling me to come see the bailiffs,” she said.
“I racked my brain — I couldn’t find any reason for it. … I showed up on the appointed day, walked in, and asked, why exactly was I called in?”
“The bailiff starts talking about some court case and says I’m the defendant, that I have an ‘intangible debt to the country’ tied to this case. And shoves a contract at me,” she said. “I told him I wasn’t signing anything, wished him a good day, and walked off into the sunset.”
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