1/ Tuberculosis has become rife on Russia's front lines, with thousands of soldiers being treated for infections. The disease has spread from conscripted prisoners, but many men are being sent back to the trenches unhealed or are simply not being sent for treatment at all. ⬇️ 
2/ The independent Russian media outlet Tochka reports that the Burdenko Hospital in Pushkino, Moscow Region, is overrun with military patients with TB. A prison guard who contracted the disease before he joined the army says that over a thousand men are being treated there.
3/ 38-year-old Yevgeny was mobilised in October 2022 but suffered a relapse of his previously cured TB. His commanders initially did not want to know: "The command did not respond to complaints. They said, you are a coward, you just do not want to go on a mission."
4/ "I tried for three months to get examined, only the medical platoon commander stood up for me, and they finally took me to a civilian tuberculosis dispensary for a CT scan."
Having been diagnosed, he was sent to the Burdenko Hospital for four months.
Having been diagnosed, he was sent to the Burdenko Hospital for four months.
5/ "It was overcrowded, they introduced a strict regime there. Those who started drinking alcohol were simply thrown out. If a person violated the regime, it means he does not want to be treated, he is discharged for violations, and sent back to the war.
6/ "And then let the commander deal with him. And several of these people were thrown out every day, even with an unresolved case."
Yevgeny says that the large-scale recruitment of prisoners caused TB (and other diseases such as HIV and hepatitis) to spread in the army.
Yevgeny says that the large-scale recruitment of prisoners caused TB (and other diseases such as HIV and hepatitis) to spread in the army.
7/ "Tuberculosis is widespread in the [prison] colonies, every third person is sick. And when they went to war en masse.... At the front, these prisoners begin to infect everyone.
8/ "The doctors at the hospital said that before that it was almost empty, a maximum of 10 people on a floor, and now there are queues for hospitalisation, there are not enough beds."
When prison recruitment began under the Wagner Group, there was no examination for TB.
When prison recruitment began under the Wagner Group, there was no examination for TB.
9/ The Russian Ministry of Defence later banned Wagner from recruiting from prisons and formally banned the recruitment of TB patients, but in practice it turned a blind eye. Quotas and manpower shortages have led to the indiscriminate recruitment of men with infectious diseases.
10/ Ivan from Mariupol volunteered to join the army in September 2023 but fell ill with TB within two months. Like Yevgeny, his commanders initially didn't want to know, as his wife recalls:
11/ "At the hospital, they gave him a referral to a phthisiatrician [a TB specialist], but the command said: you are standing on your feet, so they did not let him go.
12/ "He was on a mission for 21 days, and they said: if you come back alive, we will take you away for an examination. He came back alive, but they never took him anywhere."
Eventually he was hospitalised with a health crisis and was diagnosed with TB, and now needs surgery.
Eventually he was hospitalised with a health crisis and was diagnosed with TB, and now needs surgery.
13/ However, Ivan faces a dilemma. If he does not get treated he may die, but if he does get treated he will likely be sent back to the trenches and may also die, and is almost certain to get TB again:
14/ "The phthisiatrician says there is a choice: not to do the operation, but then the tuberculoma may burst after a while and he will die. And if he does, the [medical] commission may then declare him cured, and therefore fit for service.
15/ "But in the conditions of the front, he will 100% get tuberculosis again."
Another soldier with TB, Andrey from Samara, explains how the trenches are conducive to the spread of the disease:
Another soldier with TB, Andrey from Samara, explains how the trenches are conducive to the spread of the disease:
16/ "We lived in damp dugouts all the time, scooped up liquid clay with our boots, there was no heating. We slept in damp sleeping bags, you were in dampness and cold around the clock."
17/ TB-infected soldiers present a severe risk to those around them, as the bacteria can be transmitted through the air. A single patient can infect up to 30 people a year on average. In the cramped, damp conditions of a dugout, many more may be at risk.
18/ There has already been a sharp increase in TB cases across Russia due to soldiers being discharged from the army. In 2023, 225,000 TB cases were recorded in Europe, with Russia alone accounting for 55,000 cases – a quarter of the total.
19/ As a specialist TB doctor notes, the spread of TB through the Russian army presents a severe risk to public health post-war, which will become even more acute when large numbers of infected soldiers are demobilised and return to civilian life.
20/ "All this will be revealed later - when the sick return to civilian life, infect their friends and, finally, when their condition worsens, go for testing and treatment. It is clear that when they are demobilized and dismissed, no one will test them for tuberculosis." /end
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