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Conscript Andrei Lazhyev, 19, did not want to sign the contract to be sent into the war.
A few weeks later he turned up in hospital badly injured and completely confused.
Then he died.
The 19-year-old’s parents suspect that the son was beaten as revenge because he did not want to be sent to the fighting in Ukraine.
They tell their story for Radio Free Europe.
The son died in a military hospital in Sevastopol earlier in November.
Then for several weeks they had tried to get information about his condition – and begged to see him.
Couldn’t see or walk
The 19-year-old student began his conscription four months ago.
In late September, Andrei Lazhyev contacted his parents and said he was in a field hospital in Crimea. He said he felt sick and constantly nauseous.
He was discharged from the hospital after a few days and sent to a base in northern Crimea.
Then the parents heard nothing until October 23.
Then the father Nikolai Lazhyev was contacted on social media by a patient at the hospital in Sevastopol who stated that he was in the same hospital as their son.
The man stated that Andrei had been admitted to the hospital a couple of weeks earlier and that his condition was bad.
He could neither see nor walk and was constantly vomiting.
Shocked by the picture
The roommate and the father got in touch by phone and handed the phone over to the son.
Andrei then stated that he lost his phone and that he did not know what had happened and how he ended up in the hospital.
The fellow patient sent a picture to the parents – who were shocked by the sight. The son who weighed around 100 kilos when he moved in now seemed to be down to around 60 kilos.
– We didn’t even recognize him at first, says Nikolai Lazhyev to Radio Free Europe.
– We immediately called the hospital, but no one wanted to talk to us.
They were also not given permission to visit the son in the hospital.
The parents later learned that the son had been seeing a psychiatrist. He stated that Andrei’s condition was due to some kind of nervous breakdown caused by homesickness.
Contacted by mysterious person
– But the psychiatrist revealed that he had seen clear signs that Andrei had been beaten, says the father.
After the son’s death, they received conflicting and scarce information about what had happened to him.
But they got a piece of the puzzle a little later via Telegram when an unknown person sent a copy of a document from the hospital.
It says that Andrei died of swelling and bleeding in the brain. The swelling should have been discovered a month before the 19-year-old died.
But the parents were never told that in their contacts with the doctors.
Now they suspect that the son’s reluctance to be sent to the war may have been behind it.
According to Russian law, conscripts are not allowed to fight abroad. In order to be sent to Ukraine, the conscript must sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
Pressured to sign
When Andrei contacted the field hospital in Crimea in September, he said that he was pressured to sign.
– Every day: Contract, contract, contract, the father remembers the son saying.
– I told him: “Don’t sign”. He didn’t sign.
Nikolai Lazhyev, who himself has a military background, has still not received any official word from the army about his son’s service and death, and the body has not been sent home.
Now he is sure he died after a heavy-handed attempt to get him to sign.
– I’m afraid that’s how it happens. My suspicions are strengthened by the fact that no one explains anything. Nobody tells the truth, says Nikolai Lazhyev to Radio Free Europe.