“I don’t know how my journey will go, that’s why I want to tell you how I managed to escape from the front. Maybe you can help others with this information.” The story Grigori Sverdlin received from an anonymous Russian soldier earlier this year stunned even the veteran Russian aid worker. Through a secure chat channel, the man told how he and his comrades had fled the Ukrainian trenches by disguising themselves as seriously injured and dead soldiers, who had to be rushed to a Russian hospital.
They passed the heavily guarded front line while lying in the back of a medical van. “We stuck red crosses on the windows. We transported six to eight men at a time, their body parts wrapped in bloody bandages. We had put others in black bags, disguised as ‘two hundreds’ (code language for dead soldiers, ed.). We told some to groan in pain, others to hold their breath and not to respond.”
Front medics knew through which checkpoint the wounded were transported away from the lines. “The driver lied that we were transporting seriously injured people who had to be taken to hospital quickly. This way we were able to get about fifty people out of ‘the zone’.” They had rented an apartment in advance, where they could wash and change clothes, so that police patrols would not notice them.
It was also a unique story for Grigori Sverdlin (45), he says in a coworking space in the center of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. “We had never heard before that men from the front managed to escape in body bags.” Here, in the center of the city, Sverdlin runs his organization through social media and together with a group of volunteers in other locations. The street where the office is located symbolically bears a Ukrainian name. Outside, Ukrainian flags hang everywhere and the walls are littered with graffiti against the Russian occupier. Several Russian aid organizations in exile are located in the building, and in the large rooms the sound is mainly Russian and English.
Sverdlin, who comes from St. Petersburg, is the founder of the Russian aid organization Idite Lesom. The literal translation is ‘go through the forest’, but in Russian it means something like: get out of here! The organization helps Russian men to avoid military service in Ukraine or to desert from the army – a crime that can be punished with ten years in Russia since 2022.
Sverdlin himself, a friendly, tall and thoughtful man in his forties, left Russia shortly after the invasion. For years he ran a homeless organization in St. Petersburg and took part in anti-government demonstrations. “I heard from friends that I was on a police blacklist and that arrest was imminent. I immediately got into the car and drove to Estonia and from there all the way to Georgia.” In Tbilisi he decided to help the Russians who were at risk of being mobilized. “The idea was to help at least one person avoid having to kill Ukrainians.”
That worked brilliantly. Since the partial mobilization in September 2022 Idite Lesom, according to the organization itself, has already helped more than 22,000 Russian men escape the devastating war, which has already cost the lives of at least tens of thousands of Russian soldiers. It’s not just charity, Sverdlin says. “Our goal is to weaken the Russian army so that the war against Ukraine ends as soon as possible. This is resistance work.”
After the recent presidential elections, in which Putin secured a new term, fears of mobilization are again high. Especially when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently announced the formation of two new ground armies, which will require up to half a million additional soldiers. In addition, spring recruitment of the Russian army begins on April 1. Russia calls up conscripts twice a year, initially for training. Media already reported last week that the Russian army is sending out massive (electronic) service calls this time.
Also read
this report from the border area between Georgia and Russia
Who will contact your organization?
“The vast majority of requests come from people who fear that they or family members will be summoned. About a third comes from women: wives, mothers, sisters. About 15 percent are complex cases, men who are already in Ukraine or at a military base waiting for transport to the front. They are of all ages, from all corners of Russia. Some were forced to sign, others signed voluntarily. Last week we had two boys who enlisted in the army out of heartbreak. Only later did they realize how big their mistake was.”
How many requests his organization receives depends on the situation, Sverdlin says. “After the mobilization in 2022, we were flooded with questions, when penalties for desertion were increased, and every time a new mobilization is expected. We receive about forty to fifty requests a day. That is a lot. Wounded soldiers often realize in the hospital that they do not want to return. The pressure on doctors to send them back is enormous. If you lose your legs, it becomes difficult. But if you’re just missing an eye or have a gunshot wound, you go back as soon as you can.” Now, just before spring recruitment, the number of requests for help has risen to 130 per day, the organization reported last week.
Helping deserters takes a lot of patience. A team of volunteers works twelve hours a day in shifts to answer messages they receive via an anonymous Telegram channel. The questions concern how to respond to a call for service, assistance with desertion, voluntary surrender to the Ukrainians, or going into hiding. Sometimes there are weeks or months between messages, because contact is risky and soldiers often change places.
Sverdlin: “Once contact has been established, we come up with an escape plan: how someone can leave his unit, how he can move on Russian territory, how he can hide or flee. About 30 percent of deserters do not want to leave Russia. Some do not want to leave family behind, or have no money. Others simply don’t know how to make it abroad.”
Escaping from the military sounds like escaping from Alcatraz, doesn’t it?
“It is difficult and dangerous, but soldiers are not prisoners and are not guarded 24/7. Flights usually take place in remote places along the Russian border, where there is little or no surveillance. But it is very stressful and the stress does not go away once they are in Kazakhstan, Armenia or Georgia. Men are terrified that they will be arrested and deported to Russia, where they will end up in prison or back in the army.”
Although Sverdlin calls Georgia “relatively safe” for deserters, the Georgian authorities cannot be trusted by people like Sverdlin. The Georgian government maintains close ties with Moscow and refugee Russian activists, journalists and other regime critics have often been denied entry to Georgia. Sverdlin is also not happy about it and is thinking about leaving. “Russia has issued an arrest warrant against me and I have been declared a ‘foreign agent’. Georgia can deny me entry to the country at any time. Russia may have even already made an extradition request.”
Have you ever met them, the men you helped escape?
I’ve met some, but it’s definitely something we’re missing. Many people disappear from our radar. Most of our clients go to Kazakhstan and Armenia. Russians need an international passport to enter Georgia, and not everyone has that. Also from the man of the body bag-We didn’t hear anything about the escape. He wanted to go to Scandinavia, we helped with a plan. Then it became quiet. But if he had been caught we would have heard about it. No news is good news.”
Also read
this article from 2023 about the Russian mobilization
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