Thousands of Russia’s orphans have been sent to fight in Ukraine, many drawn in by promises of finally receiving the housing they were already entitled to. While officials won’t say how many have been killed, journalists from RFE/RL’s Sibir.Realii have identified 190 obituaries for orphans killed at the front over the past three and a half years. The outlet spoke with people who knew these young men to understand how they ended up on the battlefield. Meduza shares a summary of their reporting.

In late August, the city of Miass in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region buried Danil Trubeyev, a 20-year-old who was killed in the war in Ukraine. He had been captured the previous October and returned in a prisoner exchange in April 2025. But according to those who knew him, his commanders didn’t even grant him leave. A few months later, he was dead.

When asked why he enlisted in the first place, his teachers and relatives gave a simple answer: he was an orphan. They said that the challenges orphans face as adults — especially housing insecurity — are compounded by the environment in which they spend most of their lives. “They’re brainwashed 24/7. Critical thinking isn’t developed at all. They learn how to buy bread at 18, when they leave the orphanage,” one of Danil’s teachers said.

When relatives talk about Danil’s childhood, they begin by defending themselves — insisting they “couldn’t possibly have taken him in.” After third grade, he was sent to an orphanage in Miass. His mother died by suicide; his father “didn’t want to take” him into his new family.

His father’s relatives remember Danil only as a very young child. “He was quiet, gentle. Our grandmother wanted to take him in after his father refused, but her health deteriorated. And Danil was sent to the orphanage,” said a relative, Alena.

“He believed whatever he was told,” another family member, Igor, said. “He even signed his apartment over to scammers and was left with nothing. And he did have a trade — he graduated from Vocational School No. 8 last year and learned to repair cars. But he couldn’t find a job. Then someone promised him a position as a mechanic. I asked him, ‘Do you know where you’re going? That’s a mechanic for the SVO.’ He answered: ‘I won’t be shooting; they said I’d sit at HQ. And they’ll feed me, and later I’ll buy an apartment.’”

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In October 2024, at 19, Danil was sent as an assault trooper to the Toretsk front, where he was captured. “Danil tried to come home after the exchange,” Igor said. “He promised in captivity that he’d never return to the front. But he couldn’t escape. They took his phone and documents, threw him into a pit, then into an assault unit. He was killed in one of those assaults in August.”

Danil was buried on August 30, 2025. A few classmates from the vocational school came, along with some teachers.

“There weren’t many people — just a couple of relatives,” a former teacher at the orphanage said.

I didn’t ask why they left him in the orphanage. But in my view, everything started there. The walls are plastered with posters advertising contracts with huge “salaries,” and the TV blares reports about how easy it is to fight in Ukraine. Recruitment officers walk in freely and pitch the war, outright deceiving them: “You’ll work in the rear, you won’t see a single ‘Nazi.’” And they listen with wide eyes — and then they come home in zinc coffins. In class, it’s dangerous to say anything critical. You pull them aside one by one and try to explain, but they just stare with blank eyes. “I’m number 1,105 in the housing queue — if I sign, I’ll be first!”

In June 2023, Russia introduced a policy giving orphans who enlist to fight in Ukraine priority access to government housing. Regional authorities have since used this incentive to lure orphaned young adults into contracts, promising “housing without the wait.” In reality, few survive long enough to receive it. And the widows or dependents they leave behind are typically denied the promised apartments.

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‘A real shot at stability’

Though there are no official figures, staff at Russian orphanages told Sibir.Realii they believe that thousands of former wards of the state have been killed in the war. Most institutions know of at least 10 young men who enlisted — but employees suspect there may be many more. “Not everyone keeps in touch after leaving care,” said Tatiana, an orphanage employee. “By our count, seven of our graduates are at the front now. Only one told us he planned to sign a contract. We learned about the others by chance. Two are currently listed as missing. And if they’re killed, we’ll likely never be notified. We’re not [next of kin].”

Social media posts from orphanages confirm the trend: some maintain memorial boards for graduates killed in Ukraine, others post photos of former residents currently serving at the front. Teachers say many enlist because friends from their institutions have done so, or because they see no other path to housing or income. One orphan with a culinary degree, for example, signed a contract after failing to find work beyond a job as a school security guard.

Even before the full-scale war, officials from the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Investigative Committee, and the enlistment office regularly visited orphanages to promote careers in uniform, according to Tatiana. “We tried hard to spark the kids’ interest, to get them into cadet schools after ninth grade. Because for them, that’s a real shot at stability,” she explained. “Their basic needs are covered — housing, food, clothes. They have a better chance of getting an apartment, or at least a subsidized mortgage.”

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Now, the pressure has only grown: orphanages hold multiple “patriotic events” each month and arrange meetings with soldiers returned from the front. Children make camouflage netting, write letters to troops, and even learn to shoot. They attend ceremonies unveiling memorial plaques to killed alumni, and some institutions take students to visit the graves of former residents killed in Ukraine.

Housing insecurity remains a central reason orphans enlist. As of September, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported that 184,000 orphanage graduates remain on the waiting list for state-provided housing; many have court orders entitling them to apartments that authorities still refuse to deliver. Even when housing is allocated, it is often uninhabitable — without heat, water, or electricity.

Many Russians — including other former wards of the state — say the policy of giving orphans who fight in Ukraine priority access to housing is profoundly unjust. A woman from Chita who grew up in an orphanage and has spent years on the waiting list wrote: “Why do SVO participants get priority for apartments? Millions of rubles, land — and the rest of us are pushed aside. What am I supposed to do? Put my kids in an orphanage and go to war?”

“These kids are already legally entitled to housing,” another person said. “The authorities should be outraged that orphans barely get the bare minimum as it is — and instead, these ghouls want to send them to be slaughtered just so they don’t have to give them what they’re owed.”

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