In December 2025, presidential administration employee Sergey Novikov stated that the number of men returning from the "special military operation" who cannot find work reaches 250,000: state media had to remove this news. Vladimir Putin regularly states that former military personnel need help with employment and sets relevant tasks for his subordinates. Several hundred specialized programs have been launched in various regions of Russia; the "Defenders of the Fatherland" foundation is supposed to handle this separately, reporting that it has helped more than half of applicants find work. However, in practice, as far as can be judged, many enterprises are afraid to hire former military personnel. This is confirmed by the stories of the "veterans of the special operation" themselves, as well as news that employers in various Russian regions are already planning to fine employers for the absence of quotas for participants in the war with Ukraine and refusal to hire them. "Veter" contacted demobilized participants of the war with Ukraine and tells how they become outcasts in civilian life. Illustration: Lyalya Bulanova / "Novaya Gazeta Europe". The text was first published on the website of the "Veter" project. "Sorry, our old employee is returning" 52-year-old divorced worker Dmitry Bodyagin from Cheboksary not only voluntarily enlisted for the war with Ukraine but also persuaded employees of the local military enlistment office beforehand. According to him, he tried to get to the front since May 2022 to "benefit the country," but was refused twice: due to his age and a criminal record. "In 1994, two drunk policemen beat a guy, I stood up for him. I was accused of exceeding self-defense," he explains (in fact, he was tried for intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm; the conviction was expunged in 1995). Initially, Bodyagin was sent away from the military enlistment office with the words that "the army's reputation should not be spoiled," but the third time, in June 2023, "when they started taking everyone indiscriminately, even from prisons," they finally accepted him. Once at war, Bodyagin became convinced: "The army is not what it used to be." "Officers consider soldiers cannon fodder," he explains. "They send the wounded on combat missions. My brother, 44 years old, died there in May 2024. He also voluntarily signed up for the front, but as a driver, and they put him in an assault unit. They sent him on combat missions several times with shrapnel in his arm, leg, and neck. And then they zeroed him out" ("Veter" told in detail about how the wounded are sent to the front). Dmitry Bodyagin. Photo from Bodyagin's personal archive / "Veter". Bodyagin himself was also wounded. Russian forces attempted to occupy the city of Kremennaya in the Luhansk region since the spring of 2022. In the winter of 2024, active fighting took place near the city, and in the spring, troops entered the city. When Bodyagin was near a kindergarten in the Ukrainian city of Kremennaya, two mines landed there. He suffered a concussion, retinal detachment, and partial hearing loss. In the hospital, he was assigned group "B" (conditionally fit) and told that he was no longer "allowed in the SVO zone." Bodyagin returned to civilian life in March 2024. He did not receive insurance payments for his injuries, according to him: "I was sent to the hospital too late and the commander did not write a report, and it was also indicated in the documents that I had illnesses, not injuries" (many participants in the war with Ukraine say that after sustaining injuries, they face difficulties in proving to the military-medical commission that they received them during the war). Before going to the front, Bodyagin worked as a thermist – he was involved in heat treatment of metals at the "Tekhnopark Impuls" aggregate plant. He also headed the "Solidarity" trade union: together with his colleagues, he fought for workers' rights and against layoffs in the "Tractor Plants" concern, opposed payment delays, and organized independent trade union cells in Chuvashia. Returning from Ukraine to his native Cheboksary, Bodyagin began looking for work, but encountered something he could not have expected. "I go for an interview, I have experience, and [a high] fifth-grade qualification, everything is fine, they hire me with pleasure, but as soon as they find out that I am an SVO veteran, they immediately refuse. In total, over a year and a half, I was refused by 16 enterprises," he laments. Dmitry Bodyagin. Photo from Bodyagin's personal archive / "Veter". It reached absurdity. "They were already hiring me," Bodyagin continues. "I ask: 'How can I, as an SVO participant, get my meager tax benefits?' (The standard personal income tax deduction for combat veterans is 500 rubles per month. It reduces taxable income. The benefit is processed through the employer or the tax office. - Editor's note). And that's it, they immediately find reasons for refusal: 'Oh, sorry, we remembered that another employee will come to work for this position.'" As a result, the worker concluded that it is generally better to hide the fact of participation in the "special military operation" when looking for a job. And indeed: by concealing it, he finally got a job as a cutter at a Cheboksary enterprise. "I worked there for two days, and then a conversation with a colleague started – she said her husband was in the SVO. In front of colleagues, I said that I had also been there. The next day, I came to the enterprise, and I was not allowed to work. Colleagues said: 'You were asked to come in.' I went to the owner, and she told me: 'Sorry, our old employee is returning.' And then for another four months, they had an ad: they were looking for a cutter... I even filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office stating that I was being discriminated against" (the document is in the editorial office's possession. - Editor's note). Bodyagin knows many "SVO veterans" from Chuvashia who have faced the same problem as him. " 'Enterprises are afraid to hire us,' he says. 'It is believed that you [an SVO participant] are unbalanced. Although we could undergo a psychiatric examination upon request. But they just refuse us. Although, of course, no one will directly say that it is precisely because of participation in the SVO. At one local sewing factory, I started to press and said: "You wanted to hire me, but as soon as you found out I was a veteran, you started refusing. Tell me directly that it's because of participation in the SVO. I'll record it on a dictaphone." They immediately backed down: "No, no, we just don't need problems at the enterprise."' " Photo: Maxim Blinov / TASS / Profimedia. "Nothing personal, but everyone sees the news" Before going to the front, 37-year-old Dmitry Seleznev from Krasnodar worked as a children's swimming coach at one of the local schools. In November 2022, he received a summons from the military enlistment office. He had a wife and an eight-year-old son at home, but he "packed his bags and went - because he couldn't run away." In May 2023, Seleznev was hit by mortar fire and lost an arm. After spending a month in a military hospital, he was discharged from service and returned home. "I knew that a new girl had been hired for my position [in the swimming section], and she had just gone on maternity leave. The school was looking for a coach," he says. "I went to them. The director hesitated, but she felt awkward refusing me, so she hired me. I worked as usual, everything was fine, but after a month, the director called me and said that the students' parents were against me leading classes. [She said]: 'Nothing personal, you are a wonderful teacher, an excellent guy, but everyone sees the news [about crimes committed by returning participants of the war with Ukraine], and no one wants to play Russian roulette.' I told her: 'But I defended my homeland...' And she replied: 'I understand everything. You defended your homeland. And parents have to protect their children from you. Well, that's life.' " Photo: Egor Aleev / TASS / Profimedia. After that, Seleznev tried to find a job in his specialty at other sports clubs in his city, but, according to him, he was refused everywhere. His wife works as a math teacher at the same school where he worked. For several years, the three of them, with their son, have been living only on her salary and his injury payments (a one-time payment for the injury was 2.5 million rubles, a monthly pension is about 30,000). Seleznev is aware of the existing programs designed to help participants in the war with Ukraine find employment, but he does not want to apply for them. "I'm the same person I was. I don't understand why I should now go to some authorities and beg for favors to get me a job. I'm not some released convict, not a criminal after serving time. I was drafted [into the army], I served. Am I not supposed to live now?" "They say 'bastard' is not an insult" In 2025, Dmitry Bodyagin, according to him, "was already ready to be hired" at the "Elara" enterprise, a plant that produces high-tech electronics. "I told them: 'Only I would like to see if it's noisy at the plant, because I can't work in a noisy production environment,'" Bodyagin recalls. "In the morning, they called me, said a pass was issued, come. I came, looked at the workplace. They said: 'Let's start processing you.' And I again mentioned the situation with tax benefits for myself. An employee of the enterprise asks: 'Are you a veteran?' I answer: 'Yes.' He: 'Sorry, the director is out of town. We need to discuss this with him.' I went home, and I received a refusal, as if I didn't meet the qualifications. Although they needed a third-grade qualification, and I have a fifth." Bodyagin even applied to the prosecutor's office regarding this matter, but there, as he says, they refused to consider his application: "They said: 'Show us a written refusal stating that you are being denied specifically because of participation in the SVO.'" Photo: "Defenders of the Fatherland" Foundation / VK. At other enterprises where Bodyagin tried to apply, he was asked why he hadn't worked recently. He answered: "Well, I just had a short break..." "And where were you?" "I was in the army. I just got discharged." "And where were you? In the SVO?" I say: "Yes, I was there." After that, he was refused. In July 2025, Bodyagin got a job as a thermist at the "Elmekhpro" enterprise, which produces electrical appliances. Three months later, at the end of his probation period, his workshop colleagues learned from conversations that he had been to the war. Since then, according to Bodyagin, one of his colleagues, a worker from the galvanizing section, began to publicly insult him regularly: calling him a bastard and stating that "SVO soldiers should be impaled on bottles!" After Bodyagin successfully passed his probation period and was signed a labor contract, he approached the enterprise management and asked to be "protected" from the offender. "But after learning that I was a veteran, they simply didn't let me work anymore," Bodyagin claims. "I came to work, changed. The foreman approaches me and asks: 'Why did you come? Go to the HR department.' There they say: 'Well, we decided at a meeting not to let you work anymore due to the conflict.'" Bodyagin appealed to the prosecutor's office (the application is in the editorial office's possession. - Editor's note). "I even sent them witness testimonies who saw this scene," he says. "But for four months, they didn't question anyone. I ask the prosecutor why. She calls them in front of me and starts questioning them. It's a circus. The people didn't even talk to her. Everything was swept under the rug. The prosecutor's office says: 'Well, you should have taken a video recording.' I receive dismissive replies, complete disregard. They say that 'bastard' is not an offensive word. But I believe it is discrimination." Photo: Egor Aleev / TASS / Profimedia. "I asked my mother: 'Are you afraid of me too?'" 33-year-old Sergey Vakulenko from Kemerovo, before going to the front, lived with his mother and worked at one of the local mines. In 2023, he voluntarily went to the war with Ukraine: "I wanted to prove to myself that I am a man." In November 2024, Vakulenko received a severe shrapnel wound to the neck and chest, spent several months in the hospital, was discharged, and returned home. "At first, I was just recovering at home," he says: the two million received for the injury and the pension allowed him not to work. "After two months, I went to the foreman to get a job at the mine again, but I was refused in four places," Vakulenko continues. "My former boss refused, allegedly because he worried that I wouldn't be able to handle the job in terms of health. Others were ready to hire me, but when I mentioned that I had been in the SVO – I was sure that the hero status would help – they refused. In fact, my participation in the SVO played against me. In a couple of places, people's expressions immediately changed, and it was clear that I would be refused." According to Vakulenko, after another "no," he tried to find out why and received the answer: "The work is already stressful, and participation in the SVO has never made anyone more balanced." "It's a shame," laments the miner. "I know I can control myself. But at the same time, I saw so much there [at the front] that, honestly, I wouldn't want to be in a closed room with many of these characters myself. After one interview, I returned home and even asked my mother: 'Tell me honestly, are you afraid of me now too?' She said no, but from her intonation, I understood that it wasn't entirely true." Desperate to find work in his profession, Vakulenko has been working as a private driver in Kemerovo for the last six months. Photo: Mikhail Sinitsyn / TASS / Profimedia. "We are not expendable material" Dmitry Bodyagin appealed regarding labor discrimination of SVO participants not only to the prosecutor's office: he also wrote letters to Chuvash deputies and the city administration, but from all of them, according to him, he only received "dismissive replies." In November 2025, he got a job at the "Temp" metalworking company – and has been cutting metal there ever since. His public activities did have some effect: according to Bodyagin, after the probation period, the city administration called the enterprise to find out if everything was okay with the new employee. Thus, his latest employers learned what Bodyagin had not told them: that he had recently returned from the front. Bodyagin was immediately called back from the HR department and asked: "Why did you hide that you are a veteran?" "I: 'Why should I tell you? Do you need this?'" Bodyagin recounts. "Now my probation period has passed, so it's difficult for them to fire me anyway. Even if they fire me, I can get reinstated through court." According to him, exactly the same situation arose with his friend Sergey Golitsyn: after getting a job as a driver in agricultural lands, he was fired after employers learned about his participation in combat operations, but he returned to work through court because he had passed his probation period. "There are many who remain silent [about this problem]. Some go to Moscow in search of work. Some are forced to work in security," Bodyagin continues. "They hire you for security without problems, but I, like many, wanted to work in my profession. But after the SVO, they only hire you for low-skilled jobs." Dmitry Bodyagin picketing at the Monument of Military Glory in Cheboksary, May 9, 2026. Photo from Bodyagin's personal archive / "Veter". In April 2025, officials of various ranks and "SVO" veterans were invited to the Cheboksary social protection department to discuss their pressing issues during a video conference with Vice-Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. "There were different regions, they reported and asked questions. I wanted to ask about the employment of special operation participants, introduced myself, started speaking, and my microphone was turned off," says Bodyagin. "Golikova says: 'Chuvashia, why was your microphone turned off?' And local officials told me: 'We will resolve this issue ourselves. Quietly.'" A month later, on May 9, Dmitry Bodyagin held a solo picket in Victory Park in Cheboksary with demands to stop the discrimination of "SVO" veterans in employment. His poster read: "Defenders of the country should not be outcasts. Discrimination of SVO participants is a disgrace to society! Chuvashia authorities, protect those who protected you. We are not expendable material or cannon fodder!" After this, local television reporters contacted Bodyagin and asked him for an interview – but, the former military man laments, none of his discussions about veterans' problems or quotes from Putin were included in the story, leaving only 11 seconds of his long speech. In February 2026, Bodyagin, according to him, was called by someone on the intercom during the day. He went out. Two unknown individuals "advised him to stop writing statements and complaints," and then hit him in the chest. "I swung to fight back, but I stumbled and fell on a step," he says. "I injured my leg, went to the emergency room. Then I filed a lot of complaints with the prosecutor's office (they are in the editorial office's possession. - Editor's note), asked them to get information from video cameras, but there was no reaction from them." On May 9, 2026, Bodyagin again went to a picket with the same slogans. This time, television was not interested in him. "It feels like the war was a dream" Around the same time Bodyagin was trying to get to the front, his son told him he also wanted to go to war. "I told him: you are now going into the army for conscription," says the worker. "Serve a year first, see how you like it, and then decide whether to sign a contract for the SVO. Well, after serving in the army and learning from the military how things are [at the front], he changed his mind about going there." Bodyagin Sr., despite the difficulties he encountered in finding work, also does not plan to return to Ukraine: he is disappointed. "While still in service, I filed several complaints against the officers regarding non-statutory relations and the fact that we had elderly fighters who wrote reports to be discharged, but they were refused. One officer was even brought to high treason," he claims. "How do I feel being back in civilian life? Like in a dream," says Sergey Vakulenko. "Although sometimes I drive people [in a taxi], they discuss some trivial household matters on the phone, and it seems to me that the war was a dream. There is blood, guts, everyone is dying, and here it's like a parallel reality. There is no war here, people are just going to buy a refrigerator or go home after a party at the club."