Nikita Zvezdov was 15 years old when Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022. In April 2024, just after his 18th birthday, he was drafted into the army. Shortly before that, he had been refused admission to a vocational school in Krasnoyarsk, and he is sure that they did not accept him on purpose. In recent years, the media have repeatedly written that students and students are deliberately being cheated on exams so that they can be taken into the army. But this cannot be proven.
Conscription and military service obligation
Zvezdov received the conscription personally at his home and in May 2024 went to military unit N25573 near Ussuriysk. In the forums, it is described as the most sinister and criminal military unit in Russia, as soldiers are constantly dying there. There are also reports of harassment, blackmail and beatings.
On the way to the military unit, Zvezdov was forced by the officers to sign a long-term contract with the army, but he refused. The young man emphasized to DW that he never wanted to participate in the war against Ukraine. Then the harassment in the military unit began: 200 push-ups with a gas mask, 50 laps in a bulletproof vest that weighed up to 30 kg, as Zvezdov tells it.
In his desperation, he even tried to commit suicide, but the officers prevented him. Then, under the threat of criminal prosecution, he was forced to sign the contract.
Zvezdov's story is no exception. Due to the shortage of personnel, many conscripts were forced to sign contracts with the army.
Escape from Russia to Germany
A month after signing the contract, Zvezdov was told that he would be sent to the assault units in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region around Melitopol - in units that recorded some of the highest losses. "I had no choice but to run away", he says.
After receiving his first salary of 40,000 rubles (450 euros), the young man asked for leave - supposedly to stock up on provisions for the front. And he was assigned a supervisor, whom he had to periodically call on WhatsApp, but he was not very vigilant. Zvezdov took advantage of this, took off his uniform, packed his bags and fled to Armenia.
Six months later, they started looking for him, but he was already far away - from Armenia he reached Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from there - to Croatia, where he requested political asylum. Without waiting for the authorities' decision, in December 2025 he left for Germany, where he also applied for asylum. Germany rejected him, because according to EU regulations, Zvezdov can only submit such an application in the first country of the Community on whose territory he set foot, i.e. Croatia.
The German authorities must in principle "hand him over" within six months - a period that expires at the end of July. After that, responsibility for his case is assumed by Germany.
Chances of asylum for Russian deserters
Human rights activists say that Russian deserters have virtually no chance of asylum in Germany, although representatives of the previous government had assured that they would recognize refusal to fight and desertion as valid reasons.
"Protection is only granted when there is a personal, well-founded fear of persecution," the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees confirmed to DW.
There are hundreds of reports of captured Russian deserters being sent directly to the front, where they are subjected to abuse. According to the Russian portal ASTRA 29, after the start of the war against Ukraine, illegal prisons were created for Russian deserters - in basements, abandoned industrial buildings and other buildings. There, officers extorted money from soldiers, kept them in inhumane conditions, urinated on them, starved them, beat them, tortured them or even killed them. According to the portal ASTRA 29, most of such prisons were located in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, but there were also some on Russian territory.
When the church helps instead of the state
Even if Russian deserters manage to escape abroad, they are threatened with deportation - including from Germany. According to the Bundestag, a total of 126 people were deported in 2025.
After Nikita Zvezdov was denied political asylum in Germany, he was granted a church asylum. Christian communities can provide it if deportation poses a threat to life or health. Thanks to this regulation, the young man ended up in a refugee camp at a Protestant church near Aachen. There, he was housed in a room for ten people and spent most of the day working in the kitchen or in the yard. This allowed him to avoid deportation and remain in Germany.
On the night of June 16, German police came to the camp where Zvezdov had previously lived, to take him away and the next day to be deported to Croatia via Leipzig.
Zvezdov is impatiently waiting for July 30 - the day from which Germany will be responsible for his case. After that, he could submit a new application to the authorities without fear of being urgently deported to Croatia. The young man does not know what he will do if his asylum request is rejected again. He says that he will probably settle in a country outside the EU.
Authors: Daniil Sotnikov | Daniil Bolshakov