Soldier on crutches and with bullet fragment in his skull sent to the front two days before medical commission

Viktor Filippov, a 41-year-old resident of the Irkutsk region, signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2022 and served in military unit 41680 in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Despite receiving a gunshot wound to the head in 2019, which resulted in a trepanation and the retention of a bullet fragment in his skull, Filippov signed the contract. In addition, in September 2025, Filippov suffered a fractured left heel during the war, which is why he still uses a crutch, his lawyer tells ASTRA.

As follows from the medical documents of the serviceman, he has had five seizures since 2025. On July 15, 2026, Filippov had a consultation with a neurologist, who appointed him to undergo the Military Medical Examination (military medical commission) on July 20. However, on July 18, the military came for the man and took him on a combat mission.

“They will come for us in an hour, they will take us to the storm. So that’s it, f*ck off, goodbye,” Filippov said in his last message on July 18, after which the contact was lost. Presumably, the man was taken to the village of Novotroitskoye in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. He has no relatives, the lawyer says.

Previously, soldiers from the Irkutsk region complained that they were being used as “expendable material” for assaults in the 1st Slavic Brigade. For complaining about being beaten by military personnel in military unit 41680, they were handcuffed to a railing for several days, and one of them was sent on an assault mission. The soldiers’ families refer to this brigade as the “Bermuda Triangle” due to the high number of missing soldiers.