In Russia’s 83rd Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade, a large-scale corruption scheme was uncovered in which officers falsified injuries and awards to receive illegal payouts, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) reported.
According to intelligence, the brigade’s command embezzled over 200 million rubles (around $2.5 million). More than 30 servicemen were involved in the scheme, fabricating “fake wounds” to avoid frontline service while securing benefits and additional payments. Officially listed as wounded, they were supposedly treated in hospitals, yet continued to receive salaries and allowances.
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“In particular, the head of the special operations group, Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Frolov, was documented as having been wounded four times, while federal media ran heroic stories about the ‘successful work of sniper groups’ and the ‘rescue of comrades,’” HUR said on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
For these fabricated exploits, Frolov received four Orders of Courage and two Medals for Bravery. In reality, intelligence revealed that all his injuries were staged — he was shot by his own troops at his request, with bullets carefully avoiding vital organs.
At the same time, dozens of Russian soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine continue to be officially listed as “missing in action.” This allows Russia’s Ministry of Defense to withhold compensation payments from families of the dead, while senior officers enrich themselves with hundreds of millions of rubles through forged awards and staged injuries.
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Last year, Kyiv Post reported that in a newly intercepted call by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), a resident of Krasnaya Yaruga, a village in Russia’s Belgorod region, revealed that fallen Russian soldiers are simply buried on the battlefield to be categorized as missing.
“They kill them, the fighting goes on, it’s hot, they start to smell, so we bury them right there, and then they’re missing. And if they’re missing, the family gets no payment. Got it?” the man explains to his interlocutor, sharing what he heard from those who returned to the village.
The man also mentions the importance of identification tags to recognize and identify the fallen soldiers.
“In 1942, they canceled the medallions [Soviet era soldiers’ “dog tags”] for a reason. Medallions were used to identify them, but it would’ve meant millions to pay out,” he says, adding that “boars, wolves, crows, dogs, and ferrets will eat them up. They’re already feasting on the dead.”
An investigation by “Slidstvo.Info” in March 2024 revealed that Russian women have been searching for their missing husbands and sons for months. However, analysis of the documents showed that Russia isn’t making much effort to return the bodies of its fallen soldiers.
The investigation found that it’s both more convenient and less expensive for Russia’s Ministry of Defense to declare the dead as missing. After all, compensation for each fallen Russian soldier in the war against Ukraine ranges from 7 to 12 million rubles ($75,000 to $129,000).
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