Connection e.V.
⸻ on August 28th, 2025
In its ruling of June 4, 2025, the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden (2 K 202/24.WI.A) granted subsidiary protection status to a Russian conscript who had evaded conscription. Recognition as a refugee was not the subject of the decision.
The court considered it highly probable that the plaintiff would be conscripted into the Russian army against his will and sent to the war in Ukraine, where he would be expected to participate in a war of aggression contrary to international law and in acts contrary to international law and/or human rights, or to suffer serious injury or death himself.
The Russian army had an acute and enormous need for personnel and therefore had an interest in conscripting as many conscripts as possible. After being forcibly recruited as contract soldiers, Russian conscripts faced the threat of participating in combat operations directly in the war in Ukraine or being sent to the border regions, where they faced the threat of degrading and inhuman treatment.
«[…] The court considers it highly probable that the Russian military authorities are increasingly and systematically using pressure, coercion, deception, and physical and psychological violence […] to force conscripts to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense in order to deploy them promptly to participate in combat operations in the war in Ukraine […]»
In this respect, it concurs with decisions by the Administrative Courts of Berlin and Magdeburg.
The ruling is not yet final.