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6/23/2025, 10:09:32 PM
Russia Is Sending Teenagers Straight From High School to Die in Ukraine
A 2023 law allows 18-year-olds to sign military contracts immediately after graduation. For some, it’s a patriotic dream. For others, it’s an escape. For at least 240 of them, it has been a death sentence.
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On a spring morning in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, the assembly hall of School No. 110 was arranged for a patriotic celebration. It was May 7, 2025, and students in military-style tunics carried the Russian flag and a Soviet banner down the aisle. At the head of the procession was a young man in camouflage and combat boots. They were honoring the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, but on stage, the faces in the portraits were from a different war. They were recent graduates, killed in Ukraine.
The youngest was Alexander Petlinsky. He had signed a military contract just after turning 18. As his portrait was displayed, a woman’s voice sang from the speakers: “He didn't get to finish everything in life. It's just a war… that found a boy.”
In the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has faced the challenge of sustaining its war machine. After an early, embarrassing admission that conscripts were being sent to fight and die, the government insisted that only professional soldiers would be deployed. But the front lines are hungry for men. To fill the ranks, the state has turned to its youngest citizens. In April 2023, the Duma passed a law allowing young men to sign a military contract the moment they turn 18, with no prior service required. For yesterday’s high school students, the path to the trenches is now wide open.
A 2023 law allows 18-year-olds to sign military contracts immediately after graduation. For some, it’s a patriotic dream. For others, it’s an escape. For at least 240 of them, it has been a death sentence.
1/?
On a spring morning in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, the assembly hall of School No. 110 was arranged for a patriotic celebration. It was May 7, 2025, and students in military-style tunics carried the Russian flag and a Soviet banner down the aisle. At the head of the procession was a young man in camouflage and combat boots. They were honoring the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, but on stage, the faces in the portraits were from a different war. They were recent graduates, killed in Ukraine.
The youngest was Alexander Petlinsky. He had signed a military contract just after turning 18. As his portrait was displayed, a woman’s voice sang from the speakers: “He didn't get to finish everything in life. It's just a war… that found a boy.”
In the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has faced the challenge of sustaining its war machine. After an early, embarrassing admission that conscripts were being sent to fight and die, the government insisted that only professional soldiers would be deployed. But the front lines are hungry for men. To fill the ranks, the state has turned to its youngest citizens. In April 2023, the Duma passed a law allowing young men to sign a military contract the moment they turn 18, with no prior service required. For yesterday’s high school students, the path to the trenches is now wide open.
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