School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin"s war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two years.
New government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract soldiers.
They may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive choice.
Alexander Petlinsky enlisted two weeks after his 18th birthday.
He was killed in Ukraine just 20 days later: one of hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in Russias full-scale war in Ukraine which has also claimed the lives of at least 13,500 Ukrainian civilians since Putin launched the invasion in February 2022.
Petlinskys aunt Ekaterina said he had dreamed of a career in medicine and won a place at a medical college in Chelyabinsk, an industrial regional centre in the Urals.
"But Sasha had another dream," she told a school memorial event. "When the special military operation began, Sasha was 15. And he dreamed of going to the front."
In Ukraine, the call-up age is 25.
Russia has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job prospects.
Initially, men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a contract.
That restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the army.
Russias education system has ensured they are ready to enlist.
