Unfit to learn, fit to die. Disabled Siberian man unable to read or write is killed in Ukraine after being recruited from prison

Karmanov died on August 2 from a head wound, according to the official notice sent to his family by the military enlistment office. He was 27 years old. He was buried in a closed coffin, and his relatives were not given any other details about the circumstances of his death.

Mediazona first reported on Karmanov’s case in November 2023, after he was pressured into signing a military contract while serving a sentence for a minor theft in a maximum-security colony in Mariinsk, Kuzbass, a facility known for torture and abuse. The theft that landed him there involved finding a lost phone with bank cards and spending just over 5,000 rubles on sandwiches, pancakes, and flowers for his mother. He was due to be released in April 2024, but in October 2023, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence.

Despite a lifelong disability, a medical commission in the prison had declared him “Category A”, suitable for military service. He was then flown to a training ground in occupied Luhansk, where he was issued a military ID listing him as a “driver,” even though he could not drive.

Karmanov’s disability was profound. Diagnosed in childhood with “intellectual disability with significant behavioral disorders requiring care and treatment,” he was deemed “uneducable” after failing the first grade. He could not read or write; his signature in his passport was simply the letter “K”. His family believes the prison authorities coerced him, taking advantage of his vulnerability and inability to understand the documents he was signing. His sister Anastasia said he feared a longer sentence if he refused.

“He signed without even seeing or knowing what the paper was. He couldn’t read it, and those prison cops took advantage of it! Disabled person? Who cares,” his mother, Svetlana, told Mediazona earlier.

Svetlana, who had previously lost a six-year-old daughter to a brain tumor, recalled her last conversations with her son after he was sent to the front. “I tell him, ‘What if we would have to bury you? My heart won’t take losing a second child.’ He says, ‘Don’t think about it, mom, think about something good’.”