Igor enlisted in February 2021, shortly before Yulia realized she was pregnant. A little over a year later, he was killed in heavy fighting outside Kharkiv amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He was seven months short of his 20th birthday.
“People from the draft board told me about his death, they came to me with a death notice on March 25. He was buried on March 30 in the village of Vorontsovo where he was born,” Ivkina, 24, told The Moscow Times.
Igor Ivkin is one of at least 25 teenage Russian soldiers to have died fighting in Ukraine, according to a review of official statements and social media posts by The Moscow Times.
Igor and Yulia Ivkin on their wedding day.Family archive
Russia admits to losing 1,351 military personnel since the start of the invasion, but independent evidence suggests the real figure — as well as the number of teenagers to have been killed — is far higher.
The Russian teenagers killed in Ukraine belong to the so-called “Putin generation” of those who were born under President Vladimir Putin’s 22-year rule.
Many of these young contract soldiers lack military expertise and are more vulnerable on the frontlines, according to Russian military expert Pavel Luzhin.
“When you are 18 or 19 years old you don’t have as much fear of death as you do when you’re 25, and with a lot of testosterone in your blood, you do stupid things,” said Luzhin.
The exact numbers of teenagers in the Russian army is classified, but there are likely to be thousands currently fighting in Ukraine.
“Kids! We’re kids. They took us at 18 years old!” one group of furious soldiers apparently serving in the Russian army in an an attack on the Ukrainian town of Sumy shouted into a video camera last month. “The Russian Defense Ministry has no idea about us, or what we’re doing here, they’re throwing us directly into this s***.”
Igor Ivkin with his newborn daughter.Family archive
Many of these recruits first found their way into the army through the military draft, which requires all men between the ages of 18 and 27 to serve a year in the armed forces.
More often than not, those from big cities or more middle-class backgrounds are able to avoid the draft by enrolling at universities, exploiting loopholes or paying bribes. This means most of the younger recruits are young men from small towns and villages all over Russia.
“He would say that… avoiding the army was not an option,” Ivkina said of her husband.
The youngest Russian soldiers to have died in Ukraine were 18 years old. They include Ilya Kubik, who perished several weeks shy of his 19th birthday over 3,000 miles from his Siberian hometown of Bratsk; and David Arutunyan, also 18, from the Russian republic of Buryatia bordering Mongolia, who was killed by Ukrainian artillery fire.
The motivations of these young men vary from economic necessity to patriotism.
Ivkina said her husband was compelled by a sense of duty.
Some teenagers have even been awarded medals. Eighteen-year-old Arutyunyan received a posthumous Order of Courage for reportedly pulling a fellow soldier to safety moments before he was killed.
Source:themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/08