“Some of us are gone in black bags, and not due to the war”. The farewell letter of Russian soldier Vladimir Podkovyrkin, forced to the front a second time

In June, Podkovyrkin told Mediazona how he was snatched off the street near his home in November 2025, hauled to a recruitment center, and shipped to frontlines in Ukraine within 24 hours. Thrown into an assault in the Donetsk region, he suffered a shrapnel wound to his leg while a drone strike tore his partner apart. He survived two weeks hiding in a shattered dugout before spending months in hospitals.

Podkovyrkin began experiencing severe heart pain. At a military hospital in Penza, he was diagnosed with coronary artery disease, angina and hypertension. But after he was discharged, the pain only intensified, and in April he had to call an ambulance.

On March 16, 2026, Podkovyrkin had already filed a complaint with the Penza regional branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, demanding an investigation into the circumstances of his abduction and forced deployment to the war.

A response signed by investigator Aksyonov arrived only on June 10. It claimed that Podkovyrkin had signed a contract with the Defense Ministry voluntarily, after undergoing “professional screening, psychological evaluation, a military medical examination and a personal interview.”

Shortly before he was detained for the last time, Podkovyrkin received a response from the military branch of the Investigative Committee for the Penza Garrison. It said that a preliminary inquiry had been opened into possible abuse of authority “by unidentified individuals.”

Podkovyrkin was detained on July 25 at an acquaintance’s home and taken to the Penza Garrison military commandant’s office. The man fell ill on the way. An ambulance took him to a hospital, where he was put on an IV drip and “discharged” a couple of hours later.

There was no way to contact him: his phone, along with those of the other detainees, had been confiscated. On the morning of July 28, he finally managed to call his acquaintances and said that he and the other detainees were being sent back to the front from a military unit in the village of Leonidovka.

We publish Vladimir Podkovyrkin’s farewell letter, which he sent to his acquaintance Tatyana Antoshechkina, who helped him avoid the war, in full. His fate following his deployment on an assault mission on August 13 remains unknown.

Editor: Mika Golubovsky