injuries because he got blown up by his own comrades, not Ukraine Matthew Loh Oct 3, 2023

Russia has refused to compensate a soldier who was injured by his own comrades in Ukraine. A court ruling against Khizri Kurazov, a corporal, says he was wounded by an accidental mine blast. But he’s not eligible for a standard $30,000 payment because he wasn’t injured in the line of fire.

A Russian corporal wounded in Ukraine has been denied standard compensation for his war injuries because they were inflicted by his own comrades instead of Ukrainian forces, court documents show.

The case of Khizri Kurazov, a corporal of the military unit 3737 of the Russian Guard, was detailed in a September 8 ruling in Russia’s southern district military court.

The ruling against Kurazov was earlier reported on by independent Russian media.

Kurazov, a contract soldier, was wounded in Ukraine by a mine accidentally detonated by fellow Russian personnel, according to the September 8 decision.

His injuries were certified by a Russian military hospital on March 14, and the cause of his wounds was listed as improper handling of ammunition by someone in his unit, the ruling said.

The corporal applied for a claim of 3 million rubles, or $30,000, according to the decision. Russia has disbursed these payments since early 2022 to soldiers wounded in the invasion of Ukraine.

But on May 25, an investigation run by Kurazov’s combat unit found that the corporal’s wounds weren’t directly associated with any combat missions or tasks, and instead were inflicted by the mistakes of another serviceman.

It ruled that there were no grounds for the corporal to receive the lump-sum payment, and Kurazov’s commander ordered a refusal of the claim, the judicial decision said.

A military court in the Nalchik Garrison also refused to grant Kurazov’s payment on June 27, per the court filing.

Kurazov argued that the one-time payment to injured troops should be given to any Russian soldier wounded in Ukraine, including the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the filing said.

He appealed the Nalchik Garrison military court’s decision, bringing his case to the southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don in August.

But a panel of three military court judges — Viktor Alekseevich Kostin, Dmitry Viktorovich Merkulov, and Magomedbasir Gapurovich Shuaipov — ruled on September 8 that the original decision should be upheld.

They agreed that requirements for the $30,000 payment include the soldier being wounded in direct combat. However, they added that Kurazov has the right to apply for other types of compensation.

Kurazov’s refused claim is one of several that have been contested by injured Russian soldiers, such as contract soldier Aziz Magomedov, who was denied payment after receiving initial treatment in April 2022 at a city hospital instead of a military one, Radio Free Liberty reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.