By Ekaterina Janashia | 2025-11-24

For a growing number of young Russians, the uniform has lost its promise. Once seen as a path to stability and prestige, military service is now increasingly viewed as a gamble with the future as the war in Ukraine drags on.

Rather than questioning only the risks of the battlefield, many young adults are reassessing the broader trajectory a military career offers. The war has sharpened skepticism about whether service still delivers the social mobility, financial security and professional opportunities it once promised.

A 2025 survey by Novaya Gazeta Europe found that 47% of Russians ages 18 to 29 expressed strong reluctance to serve, citing physical danger and the threat military service poses to their personal plans.

Human death

Under the cold, drizzly skies of northern Moscow, 22-year-old paramedic Grigory approached the conscription center to determine his status for mandatory military service.

While the tens of thousands of young men called up in Russia's draft are legally forbidden from being deployed to the frontline and remain stationed inside the country, the war in Ukraine has cast a definitive shadow over the process.

Despite official assurances that conscripts are not deployed to the front lines, the massive casualty rates and the role conscripts play in logistics and border defense have fueled distrust in the safety of serving.

Training, once a straightforward stepping stone toward a full-time soldier's career, now breeds deep hesitation among potential conscripts.

For Grigory, who refused to provide his surname, that reluctance is personal. He spent several months as a volunteer nurse on the Russia-Ukraine border, a zone frequently subjected to retaliatory strikes by Kyiv.

Having witnessed war injuries firsthand, he confirmed he was "not really" interested in becoming a full-time military medic.

"It takes a toll on a person," he told AFP, explaining his decision. "You know what human death is, right?"

Evasion and failing incentives

Grigory's reluctance reflects a much broader phenomenon of resistance across the country. For many young Russians, the consensus is clear: the potential monetary payoff of a military career is simply not worth the risk to their life and future.

Many young men actively seek ways to avoid mandatory service through health exemptions, higher education deferments or by simply evading conscription officials, a problem so widespread the government has introduced stricter digital surveillance and harsh penalties for draft dodgers.

Widespread corruption, including issues with pay, lack of proper equipment and embezzlement of funds have eroded trust and made a military career seem unreliable.

In addition, the Russian military has a long-standing reputation for harsh conditions, including hazing and a brutal command style, which make service unattractive.

Consequently, attractive financial incentives offered for contract soldiers -- including record-high signing bonuses -- are frequently insufficient to outweigh the immense risks associated with frontline military service.

This national aversion to service culminated in a mass exodus, with hundreds of thousands of Russians fleeing the country to avoid the risk of eventual conscription or mobilization since the war began.

Cultural and ideological gap

This aversion is compounded by a growing cultural and ideological gap between the state and its youth: a significant portion of young Russians do not agree with the country's current politics or the war in Ukraine.

In the city of Vladimir, around 180 kilometers (112 miles) east of Moscow, 18-year-old Anton was adamant he would not join military service and has requested a deferral to finish his studies.

He told AFP outside a conscription center that he was "not a fan of military matters" and did not know why the war in Ukraine started.

A 2024 poll by Novaya Gazeta Europe, showed that the number of those willing to sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry to fight in Ukraine has fallen from 42% to 32% since February 2023, according to the survey. The number of respondents who explicitly said they were unwilling to participate in the war increased from 21% to 30% over the same period.

While the Kremlin promotes a militant, patriotic narrative, many young Russians, particularly those in large cities, define patriotism differently.

In a 2023 survey, only 15% of Gen Z agreed that war support reflected "authentic patriotism." Instead, roughly 69% defined patriotism as actively "doing something for the country and people that changes life for the better in a meaningful way," focusing on societal improvement rather than sacrifice for the state, the Journal of Democracy reported.

Heightened military conscription rules

During the "special military operation," Russia has passed a series of sweeping legal changes aimed at tightening conscription rules and making draft evasion far more difficult.

The amendments expand the pool of eligible men and impose immediate, far-reaching penalties on anyone who fails to report after receiving a summons. The most significant shift is the expansion of the draft age. The lower limit remains 18, but the upper limit has been raised from 27 to 30, a change that took effect January 1, 2024, and instantly widened the reservoir of potential draftees.

Authorities have also equipped enlistment offices with new enforcement powers. Summonses can now be delivered electronically and are considered served the moment they arrive in a man's digital mailbox. Anyone who fails to appear at the commissariat faces an automatic freeze on civilian life: a ban on leaving the country, suspension of a driver's license, blocking of loans or property registration and an inability to register as self-employed.

Fines for failure to appear have also increased sharply.

In addition, recent legislation sets the stage to end the long-standing spring-and-autumn draft cycle. Beginning in 2026, medical checks and other preliminary procedures will take place year-round, allowing enlistment offices to operate continuously.

While new conscripts will still begin service during the traditional intake periods, the shift effectively eliminates the seasonal reprieve many eligible men once relied on and formalizes a permanent state of mobilization.