3/ However, in a "cry from the heart" posted to their Telegram channel on 9 July, the lawyers describe frankly the obstacles that the government and military have placed in their way. They admit that they are overwhelmed and unable to help most applicants.

Their comments are worth reviewing to highlight how the Russian state has systematically curtailed the protections of those fighting for it. They write that the situation has evolved through four phases over each of the last four seasons.

5/ The Russian government cracked down on the lawyers over the winter of 2022-23:

"Our legislators woke up, worked hard, and instead of streamlining the legal field of military affairs, they eradicated it altogether. Well, that is in general. They tightened laws aimed at suppressing any discontent in the ranks of servicemen and their relatives, untied the hands of officials in relation to prisoners sent to the front, and not only to them. People were intimidated. And so were we."

6/ " You probably don't know, but lawyers dealing with such cases are under the scrutiny of various bodies, because we are in the way."

Things continued in the same way in the spring of 2023: "We went to the courts for payments to the wounded, we wrote complaints about the lack of allowances, we tried to put things in order with the registration of servicemen, who, in fact, became phantoms in the ranks of the Armed Forces because of the mess and loss of documents, in particular."

7/ "Spring conscription began, and our help was needed there too."

Ukraine's counter-offensive in the summer of 2023 made things drastically worse.

"Summer came. And we are drowning under the flood of appeals. Their character has seriously changed. You probably know what we're talking about. Soldiers have been at the front for months. Many are missing in action. There are many prisoners and mobilised men among them. The situation at the front is very difficult, it's no secret."

8/ "And the mess since autumn hasn't gone away. It has become even worse. And we have three factors today that make it impossible to provide legal aid in the true sense of the word:

❗️ The difficult situation at the front
❗️ Closure of any information about the fighters."