The college student went to practice from Volgograd to Kazan and ended up in an assault company in the Donetsk region. Before that, his mother had sent two husbands to the front — the first died at Oleshki, the second went missing.
Artyom Kuchurin, an 18-year-old student at the Volgograd Technical School of Water Transport, went to Kazan to practice in April 2026, and in August his mother found out that he had become a contractor.
“My son signed the contract on August 5th. I found out about this from his friend. My son and I had a fight earlier. He wasn’t talking to me. For some reason, my son left Kazan for Samara, where he signed a contract and ended up in Chebarkul, the mother said in a conversation with ASTRA. “I don’t know who put the idea in his head. In Kazan, he was doing an internship on a cruise ship. He got involved with a girl there who was older than him. He was, as they say, a pure‑hearted kid, a homebody.” Computer, studies. He had a month left of his internship, but he dropped out. I contacted the police. Later, my son wrote to me that everything was fine. I blame myself a lot for sending him on that internship, where everything went wrong…”
The mother learned from her son’s friends that after signing the contract, he had only two weeks of training in Chebarkul at military unit 89547, after which her son was immediately sent to the Donetsk region of Ukraine. There, he was first in the medical unit, and then he ended up in the assault units:
“In early November, his friend sent a short video. He seemed to be alive. But there’s been no information for several days now…”
The mother didn’t contact the law enforcement agencies, but she wrote to the human rights commissioner:
“I want them to find out where he is, why he’s in the assault units, and where he’s located geographically. And I want them to sound the alarm — after all, he’s 18 years old, so how can they let him go there?” People have been studying for military affairs for years, but here they haven’t sniffed gunpowder, it’s fucked up. Not only that, but his father died last year. And now his stepfather is also missing. So there’s also a lot of it there…”.
According to the documents available to ASTRA, Artem’s father, 44‑year‑old Yevgeny Kuchurin, died on July 13, 2025, near Oleshki, on Olekseevsky Island (Aleshkinsky Island) in the Kherson region. According to our interlocutor, her former husband went to war voluntarily; he was “promised the world.”
At the same time, her second, common‑law husband, 46‑year‑old Viktor Yuryevich Krichinin, was also at the front — he had also gone to war voluntarily in 2024 “for patriotic reasons” after his friends had gone there. He was the commander of the 1st assault squad of the 242nd Motorized Rifle Regiment (military unit 46317). Despite being wounded, in May 2026, after his leave, he was sent back to the front. On June 19, his relatives were informed that he was missing in action.
“How can the military commission deem him fit for service when he has severe consequences from a heart attack in the right lung? Because of the thrombosis in his right leg, he can’t walk properly, both the femoral and popliteal veins are blocked. They didn’t let him get treatment. They kept arranging for him to be sent on a mission and then threw him into the assault. Then they write ‘temporarily unfit’ and immediately send him into combat. What’s all this for? I have no one left…” I’m scared. I’m left with a daughter. I wanted to go and get my son. But I’m afraid for my daughter…”
The woman interviewed by ASTRA noted that she tried to secure her son’s return from the front as a child of his father, who was also fighting.
“I contacted Chebarkul. I told them that his father had died, that he shouldn’t be sent to the front.” Answer: “Provide information about the death.” I provided it. And they said in a brazen tone: “Ha, so he died last year already. If he was alive, we would have pulled our son out of the assaults.”
The student’s mother added that her nephew returned from the war without legs, an arm, and an eye.
