Russia sends injured soldiers back to front without doctors' permission

Russia has started to send injured soldiers back to the front without doctors’ permission.

Source: Russian news outlet Agentstvo quoting Valentina Melnikova, secretary responsible for the Russian Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers 

Quote from the news outlet: "It is common practice in Russia that injured military servicemen are sent to a combat zone without a decision of the military medical board. Soldiers with shrapnel in their body or punctured lungs are being returned to the front. Lawyers and human rights activists state that this is a violation of the law."

Details: Melnikova has said that since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine started, commanders of units often send soldiers after they have been in hospital to the front, bypassing a military medical board that decides on categories of fitness for service.

This board can give a conclusion about temporary or full unfitness. But the injured do not undergo [the assessment – ed.].

Melnikova has stated that soldiers who have recovered from severe lung injuries, with fragments of shells in their bodies, and those who have suffered from heart attacks or strokes are sent back to the front.

The Russian Union of Committees of Soldiers’ Mothers has announced that the Russian Defence Ministry had prepared instructions on medical examination during conscription in 2022, where it is stated that "medical examinations of citizens called up for military service under mobilisation are conducted as per column III of the schedule of diseases." Melnikova says that this is the column under which "everyone is fit" for service.

Human rights activists have declared these actions by the command unlawful and illegal, and that the injured Russian soldiers can refuse to go to war and write an official report based on this.

The news outlet has pointed out that unwillingness of the military leadership to send the injured to the medical board may mean that the authorities want to save funds on payments to soldiers, as those soldiers who have suffered an injury could claim several payments. 

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