Saving Private Alexey

A Russian prisoner joins a private military company to follow his conscripted twin to Ukraine, but his brother dies and now the mercenary is missing

In September 2022, a 24-year-old resident of Russia’s Sverdlovsk region named Konstantin was drafted into the Russian army; soon after, he was sent to Ukraine. Konstantin’s twin brother, Alexey, who was serving a prison sentence in the city of Nizhny Tagil, decided to join the Wagner PMC and deploy to Ukraine after learning of his brother’s conscription, according to the Yekaterinburg-based news outlet E1.ru.

“Alexey was slated to be released from the penal colony in December, but he joined the PMC when he learned that Konstantin had been mobilized. He said, ‘Since my brother’s there, I’ll go, too.’ By the time we learned about it, he was already on his way to the special military operation,” the brothers’ sister, Alyona, told journalists.

According to Alyona, Konstantin stopped responding to her calls in October — less than a month after he was called up. Worried, the family reached out to their local military commissariat. They didn’t receive a response until December, when they were sent Konstantin’s death certificate. According to the document, Konstantin was killed on October 30 in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

Konstantin was buried on December 16. On the day before his funeral, the family contacted Wagner PMC and requested that Alexey be allowed to travel home to attend his twin’s funeral. The request was denied.