Videos Show Russian Men Breaking Limbs to Avoid Conscription

Multiple videos have emerged purporting to show Russian men deliberately breaking their friends' limbs, with their apparent consent, to avoid being conscripted into the military.

On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of the Russian population, with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu saying 300,000 men with previous military experience would be mobilized.

Despite this statement, there have been widespread reports of men with no military background, including students and men in their 60s, being called up.

Thousands of Russian men looking to avoid being forced to fight in Ukraine have fled to neighboring countries, including Kazakhstan, Georgia and Mongolia, since the conscription order was issued.

However, some appear to be taking even more extreme measures to avoid going to war.

In one video shared on Russian social media, and reposted on Reddit, one Russian man smacks another in the arm with a sledgehammer.

The footage, which can be seen here, shows one man with his left arm over a bench, as another man lifts a sledgehammer over his head and then brings it down with a crash.

Two women are seen inspecting the man's arm, though the extent of his injury is unclear.

In a separate apparent attempt to avoid conscription posted on social media, a man can be seen jumping on his friend's leg, from the top of a flight of stairs, apparently causing a painful injury.

Newsweek has not independently verified the content of either clip.

In the Siberian town of Ust-Ilimsk, a Russian conscription officer was shot and injured by a man who was angry that his friend had been conscripted, while a demonstrator in the central Russian city of Ryazan set himself on fire to protest the draft. Anti-mobilization protests were held in 38 Russian cities in the days after Putin's announcement, with police making more than 1,000 arrests.

Newsweek spoke to a number of foreign policy experts about what Russians going to extraordinary lengths to avoid being drafted says about Putin's war effort.

"As [G. K.] Chesterton put it, 'the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' Ukrainian soldiers are defending their home and hearth—and fighting like it; meanwhile, Putin is asking Russian men to die in a war of aggression that is based on a spurious rationale. The implications for battlefield morale are obvious," Peter Rough, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told Newsweek.

Nikolai Petrov, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, added: "Russians, especially young ones, were not ready to participate in the war in Ukraine themselves before, and now they are trying to avoid it by any means. Tens and hundreds of thousands managed to leave the country. Today it is both very expensive and difficult to do this.

"Having two main options: to be sent to Ukraine or to go to prison for 10 years for evading mobilization, someone is ready to inflict serious injury on himself and sacrifice his health for the sake of preserving life and freedom."

Dr. Alan Mendoza, executive director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Newsweek that mobilization was introduced by Putin out of desperation in a bid to end the war with Russia gaining territory.

"When you consider the resolve of Russian soldiers who actually volunteered to fight in Ukraine buckled within months, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be little to no enthusiasm from a conscripted army," Mendoza said.

"This is why, through the sham referenda and the annexation of parts of Ukraine, Putin is trying to end the war with a tangible territorial gain, as ultimately, he would struggle to politically survive any more embarrassments on the battlefield."

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.