The Russian deserters trying to flee the war

ITV News’ Europe Editor James Mates met two Russian deserters in France, so far the only European country prepared to offer asylum to fleeing Russians
The losses incurred by the Russian military since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over 1,000 days ago are unimaginable – the worst by any industrialised nation in a conflict since World War II.
Accurate numbers are difficult, given the Russian Government doesn’t like to talk about them, but two independent investigations put the figures around 150,000 dead, with perhaps double that severely wounded.
For almost three years Russian troops have been fed into a meat grinder, so it is perhaps no surprise that increasing numbers are trying to get out with their lives by deserting.
An organisation called Get Lost, based in Tbilisi Georgia, helps and encourages Russian deserters. From January 2023 to January 2024 it has seen a ten-fold increase, the numbers continuing to rise in each month as the year has progressed.
We met two such deserters in France, so far the only European country prepared to offer asylum to fleeing Russians.
Alexander Sterlyadnikov crossed into Ukraine with his unit on the first day of the war. A communications specialist, he was told nothing about where they were going, only reassurance from his commander that they’d be back at their base in occupied Crimea within 8-10 days.
He didn’t believe him.
“The Russian military was not prepared for this at all,” he told me.
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Leaving his unit at that stage was impossible – police units guarded the rear areas with orders to shoot anyone trying to retreat. But after six months they were rotated out on leave, and at that stage, Sterlyadnikov headed straight for Kazakhstan.
Most Russian soldiers don’t have regular passports, but there are two borders they can cross with just their identity cards, Kazakhstan and Armenia.
There are believed to be thousands of Russian exiles in both countries, some who deserted after being enlisted, the rest anticipating a call-up and getting out while they could.
They are only relatively safe. There have been several documented cases of Russian fugitives being spirited back across the border, or being sent back by the Kazakh authorities to serve long sentences in labour camps.
Andrei Amadov had been a soldier ten years ago in Russia’s far eastern province of Yakutia. Soon after the war, he turned up to work – only to be told he’d been summarily sacked and must now report to his local army base.
By a stroke of good fortune, before being deployed to Ukraine, Amadov was transited through a base where he’d once served. He knew from old where to find a hole in the fence, and slipped out under cover of darkness.
“Why did I get away so easily? Because the military was a mess. No one was watching anyone. They were drunk. So it was pretty easy,” he told me when we met in Western France.
Like Sterlyadnikov, he made it across the Kazakh border and then persuaded the French embassy to let him apply for asylum.
Both now live in France as they wait for their applications to be approved. Both feel safe, but not safe enough to want me to reveal where they live or even details of where we met.
So far the UK has refused to consider Russian deserters for asylum; those who ask are simply told “there is no procedure available” and that Kazakhstan and Armenia are considered “safe countries”.
The cost to both men has been huge. Neither knows if they will ever see their families again – in Alexander’s case his family, all supporters of the war, will no longer speak to him. Assuming they are granted asylum, both must rebuild their lives in a strange land speaking a strange language.
The numbers abandoning their units may not yet be enough to make a decisive difference in the war, though the arrival of North Korean troops at the front suggests Russian manpower is not unlimited.
But each one who leaves is one fewer for the outmanned and outgunned Ukrainians to have to deal with.
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