‘They lie at every step’ After 20-year-old Russian conscript is killed in Ukraine, forensic analysis confirms his military contract signature was forged

Before he was killed in Ukraine, Nikita Molochkovsky accused his commanding officers of forging his signature on a Defense Ministry contract and forcing him against his will into combat. Now, an analysis from the Institute of Forensic Examination and Criminology confirms the 20-year-old conscript’s story, according to a report by RFE/RL, citing sources familiar with the criminal investigation. 

Molochkovsky was called up as a noncombat conscript in November 2023 and stationed in Khabarovsk. However, he soon learned that his signature had been copied to a combat service contract, pledging him to fight in Ukraine. Molochkovsky’s parents say their son was “firmly against going to war,” and he filed a lawsuit against his unit commander in April 2024. 

The military sent Molochkovsky to Ukraine anyway, dropping him on the front lines in the Donetsk region. He disappeared in August, and two months later, Sakhalin Governor Valery Limarenko confirmed that the 20-year-old was among several soldiers killed in the “special military operation zone.” He was buried in his hometown of Okha on October 10.

“[The conscript’s family] didn’t make it public that they’d gone to court over the commander falsifying the signature. I don’t know what they were afraid of, but his mother [Natalya] said all the conscripts in Nikita’s company were taken, and it seemed like there was no choice but to go [to the front],” one of Molochkovsky’s relatives told RFE/RL.

According to the Institute of Forensic Examination, all the signatures and entries made in Molochkovsky’s name on his Defense Ministry contract were “not written by him.” 

RFE/RL reports that Molochkovsky’s parents received the forensic examination results together with a notice from military investigators stating that the forgery case brought on their son’s behalf was officially closed.

Molochkovsky’s sister told journalists that her brother’s case record “makes it obvious that everything was fabricated.” Once conscripted, Nikita was stationed in Khabarovsk, but his supposed contract paperwork listed him in Chita (more than 1,300 miles west) and claimed that he traveled all the way back to the Sakhalin region (to Kunashir Island) to sign away his life. Nikita “never left the training facility in Khabarovsk for six months,” his sister emphasized.

“Do you see what they’re doing?! They closed the forgery case even when they had the forensic evidence proving falsification. Rejecting the claim, they wrote that he was in the Kurils, not at his unit in Khabarovsk. But his family was visiting him at his Khabarovsk unit then. [The military] lies at every step, and now they’re saying they can’t find Molochkovsky’s personnel file. What’s there to search for? It’s at the military conscription office in his hometown, in Okha,” relatives told RFE/RL.

Molochkovsky was transferred to Kunashir Island in July after his basic training. “They quickly realized that the guys were suing, and they rushed to assign them to assault units for the ‘special military operation.’ Before he deployed, Nikita got a look at his personnel file, and it was empty. Once the guys were already in combat zones, [the military] quickly fabricated files, and ‘contracts’ appeared. We wrote to the Defense Ministry and told them to take back their [contract signing bonus] money. We wrote to [Federal Investigative Committee director Alexander] Bastrykin about the forgery, to Nikita’s unit, to the prosecutor’s office. It was all useless!” said Molochkovsky’s sister.

Sakhalin’s governor has publicly vowed to provide the families of fallen soldiers with state assistance. Molochkovsky’s relatives say they’ve received nothing, so far.