Son Kidnapped and Forced to Sign Military Contract, Mother Reports

A pensioner from Yekaterinburg has claimed that her son was kidnapped by Roma and forcibly sent to the special military operation. In spring 2025, Alexander went to take on extra work on the outskirts of the city and disappeared without a trace. His mother contacted the police, called hospitals and morgues — and a month later, her son called her from an unknown number and said he had been forced to sign a contract.

Alexander told his mother that when he arrived for work, he was put in a car, given a sleeping pill, and taken to another region, where he was kept locked up without food, water, or a toilet. According to him, the torture continued until he agreed to the kidnappers« terms. After signing the contract, his phone and bank card were stolen, and later unknown individuals withdrew a large sum from it.

On 24 May, Alexander went on a combat mission and did not make contact again. His mother received notification that her only son was missing in action. The woman continues to write to all authorities. She hopes to find and bring to justice those who forced her son to go to the special military operation.

‘I sounded the alarm immediately’

Alexander is a chef by training. Shortly before his disappearance, he got a job at a food factory on a probationary period. His schedule was two days on, two days off, and in spring 2025 he decided to find side work for his free days. He came across an ad for craftsmen needed for a construction and repair crew for cottages and jumped at this gig.

‘Sasha said it was boring to sit at home. He can do anything: install windows, doors, lay flooring — he«s a handy guy. So he took on extra work,’ says Svetlana Anatolyevna, Alexander»s mother.

He had no intention of going to the special military operation, she insists. Alexander didn«t even serve in the army: he failed the medical commission. After contacting the person who placed the job ad, he arranged to be picked up by car from a gas station on the Siberian Highway and taken to the worksite.

His mother didn«t know what happened to him next for a full two weeks. All that time she tried to find out what had happened to her son, who didn»t return from his shift and didn«t answer calls.

‘A person disappears, he«s gone for a day, two, and he»s due back at his main job. Sasha has no bad habits, he doesn«t smoke or drink. He never stays away from home without warning, so I sounded the alarm immediately and went to the police,’ Alexander»s mother recalls. ‘They told me: he«ll have his fun and come back, wait a week. And then, when I went again and asked them to check the cameras, to see what car he left in at least, they said: “It»s too late, the footage is only kept for five days.”’

The search for Alexander was called off in mid-May. He called his mother from an unknown number and said he was in Luhansk.

‘They beat and threatened him in every way’

Over the phone, Alexander told his mother that at the gas station he was put in a car. Two unfamiliar Roma men introduced themselves as employers and said they would take him to the construction site. On the way, they offered him water.

‘After drinking the water, he lost consciousness and woke up already in Tambov, in some rented apartment. They beat and threatened him in every way, forcing him to sign a contract to participate in the special military operation. They didn«t feed him, didn»t give him water, didn«t even let him use the toilet until he said he would mess up the whole apartment. Then they started taking him to the toilet. In this apartment, he said, there was also a Roma woman and children,’ Svetlana Anatolyevna relays the conversation with her son.

The Roma themselves drove Alexander to a military unit and waited at the entrance until he signed the contract.

‘They warned him in the car: if you don«t sign, we»ll bury you right here in Tambov, and no one will find you. Where could he go?’ the soldier«s mother recalls.

According to information obtained from the recruitment point for contract military service in the city of Tambov, Alexander went to the special military operation voluntarily.

‘He was completely sane, he concluded the contract of his own free will and without coercion. He passed all the doctors, including the narcologist and psychiatrist, and received a positive conclusion, with no contraindications to military service,’ the recruitment point said.

Before departure, Alexander was issued a bank card where his payments were transferred. But already in the special military operation, he discovered that it was missing along with the phone to which the number was linked.

‘He immediately called the bank and asked to block the card. In the conversation, he was informed that there was a “mirror” card on his account issued to an unidentified person. But for some reason the card wasn«t blocked, and on 18 May, 600,000 rubles (approximately $6,000 at current rates) were withdrawn from it,’ his mother says.

She asked Sasha to pray that everything would be alright and he would return home. She even sent a handwritten copy of a prayer when her son was still in contact — but on 24 May he went on a combat mission and didn«t return. A week later he was declared missing in action.

The 600,000 that disappeared from his card have not been returned to his mother. The soldier«s other payments are coming to her account.

‘The commander of the military unit issued an order declaring the private missing. According to the content of this order, he retains his monetary allowance, which until the circumstances of his absence are clarified is to be paid to his spouse or other family members,’ responded the Military Investigative Committee, where Svetlana Anatolyevna applied after her son«s disappearance.

The serviceman«s mother has appealed to all authorities. She filed a report with the police and prosecutor»s office, and appealed to military investigators.

‘I ask you to deal with those people and officials who sent my son to the special military operation against his will, and even robbed him. And help me get my son back alive, he is the only breadwinner in our family,’ the Yekaterinburg woman writes in her appeals.

After Alexander«s disappearance, the pensioner was left completely alone: she raised him without a husband, and she has no other children. There is a grandson, but her son has long been divorced from his wife, and the boy lives with his mother.

‘I have bad legs, I can barely walk. On top of that, I have asthma. So I don«t work anywhere. My son lived with me and helped me with everything,’ the woman says.

Detention of a Roma group

On 24 November, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Irina Volk, published footage of the detention of a Roma group. They were caught in schemes involving payments to participants of the special military operation. The accomplices operated in Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions.

According to preliminary data, the victims of the schemes were mainly men with an asocial lifestyle. The Roma provided them with housing, bought them things, helped them get necessary treatment, and then persuaded them to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defence. After the documents were processed, they took for themselves the payments due in such cases. To do this, they arranged powers of attorney to manage the accounts and kept the bank cards.

This scheme is similar to the one the pensioner«s son described — but whether these are the people who forced him to sign the contract, the woman doesn»t know. The detention footage appeared when her son was already missing in action.

We requested comment from the Yekaterinburg police, where the mother filed a report about Alexander«s kidnapping, and from the bank from which the serviceman»s money was withdrawn. At the time of publication, we had not received responses.

Earlier, E1.RU wrote about how in the Urals a special military operation fighter paid half a million to get into a hospital.

Also read about how a soldier«s mother gave scammers his posthumous payments.

We also told the story of a 45-year-old Urals man who was recovering from a severe wound in a hospital, while in different cities across Russia, his money was being stolen from ATMs — payments for the severe wound.