In March 2022, weeks after ordering a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to "mothers, wives, sisters, and fiancees" that he would deploy only "professional military personnel" in what has become Europe's bloodiest conflict since World War II.
That pledge quickly rang hollow, with numerous reports that young conscripts were being coerced into signing military contracts almost immediately after induction and shipped to the front line in what the Kremlin calls its "special military operation."
Three years later, Russian conscripts are still being sent to the front -- and dying -- after signing such contracts, activists and relatives say.
"The Russian Army finds it relatively easy to recruit 18- and 19-year-old conscripts," Artyom Klyga, a lawyer with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, a Russian antiwar group, told RFE/RL.
"These young soldiers are frequently encouraged to sign a contract to become professional soldiers, often without fully understanding what they are agreeing to," Klyga added.
SEE ALSO: How Russia Prepares Children In Occupied Ukraine For War Against Their Own CountryAhead of Russia's spring draft set to begin on April 1, the Russian-language news outlet Vyorstka reported that at least 25 conscripts were killed in Russia's western Kursk region following Ukraine's surprise incursion there in August.
The average age of these conscripts was 20, according to Vyorstka, which based its figure on an analysis of news reports and obituaries posted on social media. Many of their deaths only became known in recent months.
One of the Russian conscripts killed in Kursk was 19-year-old Zakhar Sosnin, whose family told RFE/RL's Siberia Realities they were in the dark about how he ended up signing a military contract.
"We found out later. We still don't understand why he signed it. We were told that he 'died in the battle for the Kursk region,' and that's it. He was just a child," one of his relatives said.
Klyga told RFE/RL that Russian law technically prevents conscripts from being deployed to combat with less than four months of service. If they sign a contract, however, they can be sent immediately.
"Most of the time they have no access to lawyers or human rights organizations -- they simply have no choice," he said.
Flags fly over the graves of Russian soldiers at a cemetery in St. Petersburg on February 12.
In some cases, relatives have said they are certain their conscripted sons did not sign military contracts.
In October, several conscripts from a Russian tank division received 305,000 rubles ($3,600) after they supposedly signed contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, RFE/RL's North Realities reported.
The mother of one of these conscripts told North Realities that her son had not signed any contract.
"We are horrified because we don't want to fight," she said.
'They're Just Kids!'
Anxiety and anger among relatives of Russian conscripts surfaces regularly.
Last month, the administration of the town of Verkhnyaya Salda, some 2,000 kilometers east of Moscow in Russia's Sverdlovsk region, posted a tribute on social media to 19-year-old conscript Daniil Selyayev, informing readers that he had been killed in battle in the Kursk region in November.
Under the post, which featured a photo of Selyayev in his military uniform, commenters posted biting responses about his death, which authorities said occurred while he was distributing "humanitarian aid."
"A conscript. And they said they wouldn't be involved. Very, very sad for the boy," one wrote.
One commenter responded that conscripts are sent to the front after signing contracts or after serving first for five months, drawing a sharp rebuttal from another.
"That's not true! They're taking conscripts there! We even have our own Telegram chat for mothers whose children are at the border. No one asks them where they are taken after training," the commenter wrote.
"Why are conscripts being deployed for the special military operation?! They're just kids! It's the state's duty to bring them home alive and well," wrote another.
While many Russian families are outraged with the government for reneging on Putin's pledge not to send young, inexperienced men to the front lines, public resistance is rare amid the Kremlin's escalating crackdown on dissent since the beginning of the Kremlin's all-out war on Ukraine, Russian military analyst Yan Matveev told RFE/RL.
SEE ALSO: Exclusive: Russian Defector Leaks Files Revealing Shocking Scale of War CasualtiesAleksandr Bastrykin, head of Russia's powerful Investigative Committee, said this month that since Russia's February 2022 invasion, his agency had initiated 615 criminal cases involving charges of "discrediting" or spreading "fake" news about the Russian military -- controversial statutes that the Russian government has wielded to silence critics.
"The power of repression within the country is strong, and the security forces, along with the courts, harshly suppress any active discontent," Matveev said.
Russian casualties -- killed or wounded -- exceed 700,000, according to Western estimates as of December. An analysis by the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that since Russia's 2022 invasion, at least 172,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and 611,000 wounded, more than half of them severely and unable to fight again.