Are Russian soldiers shooting themselves to get casualty payouts? Moscow puts officer on trial

Once celebrated as a hero in Russia, Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Frolov is now on the wrong side of the law. Frolov, who goes by the call sign “Executioner”, is on trial for allegedly running a scheme to get soldiers shoot themselves to claim battlefield injury payouts.

The Russian Investigative Committee has found Frolov engaging in fraudulent activities. The Executioner and another commander from his elite unit, the 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade, have been accused of leading over 30 soldiers and medics to use their weapons and shoot themselves to cash in the payouts handed out for battlefield injuries.

The army, as a result of this scam, has been defrauded of 200 million rubles, with the kingpins or commanders, in this case, taking a huge cut.

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Colonel Frolov, who is being tried in a military court on charges of fraud, bribery, and weapons trafficking, has entered into a pretrial agreement that effectively constitutes an admission of guilt, according to court filings.

‘Keeping me in a cage’

Frolov boasted four Orders of Courage pinned to his chest and has vowed not to rest until his country wins the war with Ukraine. He bragged about his shrapnel wounds, which were later found to be part of an elaborate scheme to defraud the Russian army.

In an interview with the New York Times, Colonel Frolov did not deny that he was running a scheme that siphoned money from the military, but said it had involved manipulated record-keeping, not self-inflicted wounds.

“It turns out that my country, which spent the whole year calling me a hero, is now contradicting itself and keeping me in a cage," Frolov said in a courtroom in 2024, alleging that he was being singled out.

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In an interview last year, Colonel Frolov said that some soldiers in his unit who were wounded multiple times in a single attack had reported the injuries as occurring in separate incidents, allowing them to qualify for more than one compensation payment. He said he did not view that practice as fraudulent.

He also maintained that his own injuries were sustained in combat and were not self-inflicted, contrary to the committee’s claims. Regarding the weapons trafficking allegations, he admitted to taking certain weapons as “souvenirs.”

Was Frolov a scapegoat?

Detailing the turn of events, Frolov claimed that he is in focus because a driver for a higher-ranking officer had testified against him under pressure after he was threatened with criminal conviction for transporting drugs to the front lines.

He also said that the trial is a result of a video he had shot, accusing a former Ministry of Defense official of incompetent leadership.

“They want to pin everything on us because we spoke out against the command, against those old men in charge,” he said.

A paratrooper who served under Colonel Frolov and Colonel Gorodilov said that within the brigade it was routine for commanders to urge soldiers to overstate their injuries, though he added that he had no knowledge of anyone deliberately shooting themselves. According to him, soldiers would pass along a portion of their injury compensation payments to senior officers.