Russian deserters found refuge in France – DW – 02.11.2024

“Deserters are not traitors, and desertion is not a crime, because there is no other way out of this situation,” Alexander told DW. The young Russian says it is “a reasonable decision for a well-educated person not to participate in an aggressive war.”

Alexander is one of six Russian deserters who have arrived in Paris in recent months. They first fled to Kazakhstan and then to France in 2022 and 2023. Now they hope to receive political asylum.

The German association for human rights and refugee protection Pro Asyl estimates that between February 2022, when Russia launched its war against Ukraine, and September 2023, at least 250,000 military personnel sought protection in other countries.

Most of them sought safety in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Serbia and Israel. However, there are reports that deserters were deported back to Russia from Kazakhstan and Armenia.

Pro Asyl reports that only a few Russian soldiers have fled to any of the Schengen countries because these countries are difficult to reach and EU countries have very strict visa rules.

France sets a precedent

France has now become the first EU country to allow former military personnel opposed to Russia’s war with Ukraine to enter the country without a passport. However, the men were previously tested in Kazakhstan to rule out any problems.

“I understand the concerns of Western countries and why they do not issue travel documents to many deserters, because among them there may be Russian intelligence agents or war criminals,” says Alexander. That is why the journey of men from Russia and beyond was tracked.

“We checked the backgrounds of all six deserters,” Alexey Alshansky from Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an independent investigative organization originally from Russia, told DW about this. CIT itself was forced to leave Russia in 2022.

Alshansky is a former Russian military man who helped deserters move to France. “At some point we contacted human rights activists in the EU, after which advocacy work began, which lasted a year,” Alshansky told DW. “The deserters were in Kazakhstan all this time.”

Escape from the Russian army

Of the six people who now hoped to gain asylum in France, only Alexander had been directly involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where he served as an officer. In the winter of 2022, he was in Crimea, annexed by Russia.

At first, it looked like Russia was conducting military exercises, he told DW. But on February 24, 2022, all the soldiers were sent into a convoy.

“There was no order to attack Ukraine, there were no instructions, we simply crossed the Ukrainian border and only then did we understand what was happening,” Alexander recalls. “I was shocked and didn’t know why we ended up in Ukraine.”

He says he did not want to take part in a military operation. But he also realized that he couldn’t just turn back.

“Either my people would have shot me, or I would have been arrested at the border. I needed a legal way to return to Russia,” says Alexander.

When he was finally granted leave and returned home to Russia, he immediately submitted his resignation from the army. But in September 2022, Russia announced partial mobilization.

“It was clear to me that I would either be imprisoned or sent back to the front line if I did not escape from Russia,” says Alexander.

Stopover in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is one of the few countries where Russians can enter without a passport. That is why many Russian men sought refuge there, including Alexander. After arriving in the country, he contacted human rights activists through acquaintances and asked for asylum.

“I knew that it would be difficult to obtain protection in Kazakhstan, since Kazakhstan is still dependent on Russia to a certain extent,” says Alexander. “I was not granted refugee status, but at least my legal stay was extended.”

Alexander also visited Western embassies seeking assistance. “I knew that I could not apply for asylum there and could only do so within the country,” he recalls.

After two years in Kazakhstan, he was finally able to leave for France. “We were allowed to enter France because we actively opposed the war, not because we were deserters,” says Alexander.

No evidence of war crimes

“His participation in the (Russian) invasion (of Ukraine) was not up to him,” says CIT’s Alshansky, although he acknowledges that one cannot be absolutely sure of the veracity of the deserters’ stories.

However, there is no evidence that Alexander committed war crimes in Ukraine. “So he should be given humanitarian protection, and it is a huge success that he received it.”

Alshansky also recognizes that Ukrainians cannot understand why former Russian soldiers are given such protection. Ukrainians “may have a hard time seeing the situation from the other side (of the conflict) and realizing that not all Russian soldiers want to fight in Ukraine,” Alshansky says. There were many Russian soldiers who only wanted to survive and may not necessarily have wanted to fight.

Alshansky notes that international law states that a person is not automatically classified as a war criminal just because he participates in a war. “In the context of armed conflict, humanitarian law guarantees protection to all persons not involved in the commission of war crimes.”

Russian deserters receive no support at home

According to CIT, the number of Russian deserters has been growing since the start of the war in Ukraine. This large part of the Russian population does not receive any support from Russian society, although desertion, according to Alshansky, is “a really bold step.”

“When someone shows up at an anti-war demonstration with a ‘No War’ sign and then ends up spending several days in jail, they are considered a hero,” Alshansky says. “Such people can get a visa to another country; there are international programs for them. But if someone flees Russia after spending weeks in a hole, starving and being beaten for refusing to fight in Putin’s war, they get no support,” he says.

Russian deserters usually receive support only from foreign human rights organizations. “Russian civil society is not inclined to help deserters,” says Alshansky. “She is practically paralyzed when she finds out that a man has escaped from the Russian army. This attitude is, to put it mildly, unfair.”

Six Russian deserters detained by France are now doing their part to help other Russians fleeing the army. They even created an association called “A Farewell to Arms!”

This article was originally published in Russian.