By Olha Chepil | 2025-04-09

KYIV -- A sense of hopelessness, their country's brutal military system and a lack of social and medical support are driving Russian soldiers to "eat their guns."

Suicide on the battlefield has become a plague among Russian soldiers.

On March 23, members of Ukraine's 18th Sloviansk Brigade posted a video on Telegram showing a wounded Russian service member shooting himself in the face.

Ukrainians found a crumpled piece of paper with suicide instructions on his body. "To preserve [one's] honor" and die instantly, one should aim at critical areas on the head, the instructions said.

"Remember that you are a warrior for Great Russia. Your honor lies in your loyalty to the end," the instructions conclude, according to the members of the 18th Sloviansk Brigade.

These are not isolated incidents, and recently Ukrainians have noted frequent reports of Russian soldiers' suicides, analysts say.

"I have the impression that the number of incidents is much higher than what has been documented, because this kind of thing is happening practically every day to Russian military personnel on the front," Ihor Reiterovych, director of political and legal programs of the Ukrainian Center for Social Development, told Kontur.

'Hazing' provokes suicide

In the absence of official statistics, it is difficult for analysts to pinpoint the number of Russian troops who have killed themselves on the battlefield in Ukraine since 2022.

Possibly more than 100 suicides have occurred, said Reiterovych.

One reason for the rise in suicides in the Russian army is its brutal system, which treats its own soldiers -- especially new recruits -- with contempt, he said.

"Right off the bat, commanders place very harsh demands on all recruits and force them to do a host of things that are so awful that sometimes it's better for the soldiers to shoot themselves," Reiterovych said.

Violence targeting recruits in the Russian army has been a fact of life going back to the tsars. It depends on the absolute power of the commanding officer and the psychological and physical debasement of subordinates.

The Russian army needs only blindly obedient men who carry out any orders and are willing to die for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reiterovych said. As soon as someone starts to resist, the system punishes him.

"This concept is known as 'hazing,'" he said. "There's a clear separation of those who have been serving for a long time from those who have not."

"Men who are just arriving don't have the relevant experience, and they easily end up depending on those who have been on the front for some time."

The threats and psychological pressure that commanders direct against subordinates take various forms.

One example is when soldiers place a comrade in a pit without food or water, Reiterovych said. They dump him there after beating him and withholding medical care.

"Under wartime conditions, these kinds of torture have gotten even worse," he added.

Attempts at self-inflicted wounds

Some observers differ on where the suicides are occurring.

Russian military suicides are a problem more of the rear echelon than of the front, according to the Idite Lesom (Get Lost) program, which organizers founded in October 2022 to help Russians avoid the wartime draft.

"Men are simply pushed to the brink of suicide," said Ivan Chuvilyayev, a spokesperson for Idite Lesom. "This is happening everywhere. It's not just happening on the front, and not just in [Russian]-occupied territory. It's happening at the bases, during conscripted service, among all sorts of troops."

"This has always happened," he told Kontur. "And it's a problem the army is always going to hide and ... sweep under the rug, and it will ... keep running into it over and over again."

In many cases, Russians are trying only to wound themselves as a way to get removed from the front, but they end up killing themselves instead, he said.

"It's really hard to do this," Chuvilyayev said. "[T]here are a lot of men who might overdo it [fatally] because shooting yourself in the leg, for example, is a distinct skill."

Another problem is that Russian society stigmatizes wounded veterans, analysts say.

Ungrateful civilians often view men with limited abilities as a burden and call them "crippled."

Out of despair, some injured Russian soldiers choose suicide.

"They want to shoot themselves because they understand that they'll go home and their whole life will stop at this [dismal] point," Reiterovych said. "Their wives generally abandon them. They'll quickly squander their money on drink, or they won't get it at all. If that happens, what's the sense in continuing to live?"

Another issue is insufficient logistical support in the Russian army, analysts say.

When military personnel are wounded, they need to wait a long time for evacuation and medical attention because of constant shelling and attacks by Ukrainian drones.

Myths about being taken POW

Sometimes Russians deal the finishing blow to their seriously injured compatriots and do not try to evacuate them because they fear evacuation is too dangerous.

"Once they end up on the front, Russian soldiers have little chance of surviving," said Vitaly Matviyenko, an employee of Ukraine's Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and spokesman for the I Want to Live project.

"If Ukrainian troops don't kill them in combat, [Russian soldiers] will either kill or taunt [their own injured comrades]," he told Kontur. "That's why there are so many suicides."

Russian propagandists make the situation worse by lying that captured troops will endure torture and abasement by the Ukrainians.

"Before they're shipped off to Ukraine, members of the occupying army are told horror stories about the Ukrainians," Matviyenko said.

"Specifically, they're told that if they're captured, the Ukrainians will do horrible things to them like [torture] them, rape them, cut off their genitals or what have you," he said.

"Since 'Russians don't surrender,' it's better to commit suicide," said Matviyenko. "Only the smart ones understand what they should do and try to surrender voluntarily."