"They said, 'If you don't fulfill the contract, you'll be imprisoned for 15 years.'" Court sentences Andijan man who escaped from Russian military training ground
“They said if you don’t fulfill the contract, you will be imprisoned for 15 years.” A court sentence was read to a young man from Andijan who escaped from a Russian military training ground.
A 22-year-old young man from Andijan who was imprisoned for 9 years in Russia, was drafted into the war in Ukraine and escaped from a military training ground was read out. “Daryo” got acquainted with the court documents.
It turned out that N.U., a resident of the Altynkul district, graduated from school in 2021 and applied to a higher educational institution. However, after failing to enter, he went to Moscow, Russia, in September to work. At first, he worked in a car service, and later in construction.
In August 2022, he was stopped by Russian law enforcement agencies while driving a car with an acquaintance. When the car was searched, drugs were found. After that, N.U. and his accomplice were brought to criminal liability.
In September 2023, the Bryansk Regional Criminal Court sentenced him to 9 years in prison. While serving his sentence, N.U. was placed in a 13-day isolation ward for violating internal order.
“While I was in the isolation ward, prison officers came in, made me sign documents and left. A week later, the Russian Defense Ministry soldiers came and announced that they would take me to the war in Ukraine. I told them that I did not agree to go to war. Then the soldiers told me that I had signed the contract of my own free will and showed me the signed documents.
They said that if you do not fulfill the contract, you will be imprisoned for 15 years. Only then did I realize that the signature I had signed to extend my time in the isolation ward was actually a military service contract,” N.U. said in his testimony in court.
After that, he was taken from the prison along with other convicts to a military training ground in the Luhansk region. There, he underwent 13 days of training in the use of weapons, combat operations and first aid.
During military training, N.U. made an escape plan with young men named Maharram, an Azerbaijani, and Daniya, a Russian. After that, on September 9, 2025, after passing the evening inspection and registering, they managed to secretly escape from the military training ground.
Initially, they found refuge in the house of an elderly Russian man named Konstantin, who lives in a remote village in the Luhansk region, and hid there for about three months, looking for a way out of Russia. In November, the young men illegally crossed the wire fence on the border and reached the Russian city of Belgorod. After living there for about two weeks, N.U.'s companions left for their respective destinations.
“When I was left alone, I contacted my brother and asked him to give me $2,500. After receiving the money, I looked for a car through my acquaintances to get to Moscow. I agreed with a driver named Bakhtiyor from Kashkadarya for 150,000 rubles and reached the destination. I lived there until January in daily rental centers,” the defendant says.
On January 15, 2026, N.U. bought an online ticket for the Domodedovo-Tashkent flight and returned to Uzbekistan. Shortly after arriving home, he was detained by law enforcement officers.
The Balikchi District Court for Criminal Cases found N.U. guilty of part 1 of article 154 of the Criminal Code (recruitment). He was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months of correctional labor under Article 57 of the Criminal Code.
Earlier, a 25-year-old man from Shahrisabz, who fled the war in Ukraine and returned to Uzbekistan by sailing across the canal through Kazakhstan, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months of restriction of liberty.