David Fedorov, a 19-year-old resident of Cheboksary, was detained on the street by police officers on May 15. The official reason was to establish the identity of the young man, despite the fact that he had a passport with him. David was taken to several police departments, in one of which the security forces allegedly found something illegal in his phone, beat him (the video shows a bruise in the area of his left eye), and then threatened with either seven years in prison or signing a contract. The young man surrendered and, after being forced, became a contract soldier, his mother Polina told ASTRA.
“They detained him, brought him to the department, began to apply physical and psychological pressure — he was in the department, they beat him there, he told me so. He signed a contract because of this,” says Polina.
Fedorova clarified that on May 12, her son received a summons for military service and was supposed to report to the military enlistment office on May 13, but did not come. In addition, at the age of 16, David stole headphones from the Sport shop on a bet, which led to a criminal case. However, the family paid a fine of 10,000 rubles with compensation, and the criminal record was expunged.
According to Fedorov’s mother, her son was given a contract, a military ID card, a military medical commission was conducted and an expiration date of “B” was set in one day, and then sent to the selection point. On May 16, he was sent to military unit No. 22316 in Yekaterinburg, and on May 18, David was already in Russian-occupied Donetsk. He didn’t have time to take any things with him, and his mother never saw her son again.
“I am sure that everyone will have a question about how it is possible to legally hold such events in one day. And I am also sure that I will receive useless letters. I’ve already been hinted that I won’t prove anything. Everyone at the medical examination will say that there was a son. The staff will say that the son has already been beaten. There are no witnesses,” says Polina Fedorova.
David was promised that he would serve in the unmanned systems forces, but on July 22 he was sent on a combat mission as an attack aircraft in the Pokrovsky direction towards the village of Mayak — that was the last time David was in contact. On July 23, David Fedorov is officially considered missing.
Polina began searching for her son through all telegram channels with information about Russian prisoners of war. In one of the Ukrainian chat rooms, she saw a photo of a young man who looks like David in some features of the open part of his face. However, there is no evidence of this.
Fedorova sent complaints to the prosecutor’s office, the military prosecutor’s office, and the headquarters of Dmitry Kuznetsov, a State Duma deputy from Fair Russia. The only answer was given by Cheboksary military commissar Yevgeny Karpov at a personal meeting — he showed all the documents for her son, and also stated that “the case is complicated” and it is almost impossible to prove coercion to sign a contract.
