In 2022, Roman Borisenko, a resident of Debaltsevo, was forcibly mobilized to the “DPR”, despite the severe consequences of a car accident in 2014 and the chronic diseases that arose after that, he told ASTRA.
“They removed 16 centimeters of my intestine, my abdominal cavity was torn and sewn up for me. The lung failed, the kidneys failed, and biliary peritonitis began. I had stomach problems after that. I’ve had three surgeries in three months. I had eight tubes. Even some professor came, he said: “Get ready, you won’t live,” Borisenko told ASTRA.
He was lucky to survive, but he was in constant need of medical attention. According to him, he was supposed to have a disability, but he did not apply for it, because then, he claims, he could have problems with work. He was not afraid of mobilization when the war began, because he worked as a stoker in a boiler room, and he had a reservation.
Two days before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Borisenko was summoned to the administration, allegedly for training camps.
“I started explaining, ‘What training? My mother is sick.” She has Parkinson’s disease, she sometimes fell and couldn’t get up on her own. The mayor replied: “Nothing will happen to her in three days,” Borisenko recalls.
However, these were not training camps, Borisenko was taken to military unit No. 08803. During the move, he injured his knee and could not even step on his foot, but this did not prevent the command from sending him on combat missions.
Borisenko claims that he repeatedly asked to be sent to the military medical commission, but his requests were ignored. He was also not allowed to go on vacation to his sick mother — even when she died in May 2022, it took several weeks to get permission.
On vacation, his condition deteriorated sharply, Borisenko was hospitalized again. After that, he went through several more hospitals. On January 1, 2023, he was assigned to the Ministry of Defense, to unit 34483. In mid-2023, he got a medical examination, where he was assigned the “B” category. According to him, the categories are specially overestimated — with his diseases, category “D” should be assigned but no one pays attention to such violations.
It soon became clear that the hernia he had after the accident had grown from 8 centimeters to 21. He was operated on again. Borisenko repeatedly tried to submit reports on his dismissal, but they were dismissed. When he was once again threatened that he would be sent from the hospital to the front, Borisenko deserted last spring.
Since then, according to him, a criminal case has been opened against him, his wife and relatives regularly receive threats, but she continues to send complaints to the prosecutor’s office, the Investigative Committee and deputies. At the same time, according to him, the responses are either not received, or the appeals are forwarded to the unit.
According to Borisenko, he and his wife demand that the Ministry of Defense provide the only document — the decision of the draft commission, which does not exist, since the commission did not meet, but he is refused under various pretexts.
“Everyone who is caught in the “DPR” for murder is not sent to court, but back to the unit, where they are forced to sign contracts and sent to the assault without understanding why people leave the units. And we have become hostages of circumstances and are unable to resign even for health reasons, although we have not signed contracts with either the DPR or the Russian Defense Ministry,” said to ASTRA Borisenko
