“Vyorstka” told about the service of Russians with HIV and hepatitis in Ukraine

Hundreds of people with a confirmed diagnosis of HIV infection and hepatitis B and C are fighting in the Russian army and PMC “Wagner” in Ukraine. Officially, these diseases disqualify them from service, but in practice these rules are often ignored, and many fighters simply hide their status. About it writes the publication “Vorstka”.

At the beginning of the February invasion of Ukraine, both the Russian army and the recruiters of PMC “Wagner” pointed to a positive HIV status as an obstacle to participation in hostilities. Among the grounds for exemption from conscription is HIV infection in the stage of secondary diseases, with which conscripts must receive category “D” – unfit for military service. But with HIV in the primary stage, the conscript may be category “B” – partially eligible, but the exemption did not apply to her.

“Verstka” tells the stories of several Russian soldiers in the army or PMC “Wagner” who participated in hostilities in Ukraine or had to be sent there. In many cases, military enlistment offices do not know the current state of health of conscripts and reservists, and their status must be proven to the medical commission.

“No one was interested in my health at all: I have arms and legs – I’m fine. Only thanks to the fact that I knew that I had HIV, I started looking for a doctor there to show a certificate from the AIDS center. If I hadn’t did, he would have already run and fought,” one of the reservists called up during the mobilization told “Vörstke”

The publication tells the stories of Russians who went off to fight and who deliberately hid their status. However, after heavy losses in the Russian army, it ceased to be necessary. Months after the war, the requirement not to be HIV-positive disappeared from some advertisements for the recruitment of mercenaries. In January, during the heaviest battles in Bakhmut, “Wagner” began to hire narcologists even without criminal records (the PMC declared that it does not hire those convicted under certain articles – RS).

In the PMC, patients receive therapy with modern drugs, one of the mercenary’s wives tells Vörstke. He wrote about this in his report in The New York Times. Such drugs are far from always available to patients in the regions or colonies from where many mercenaries were recruited.