Russian Lawmaker Proposes Sending People Who Seek Divorces to War

A Russian lawmaker has suggested sending people who seek divorces to the battlefield in Ukraine.

Russian State Duma member Vitaly Milonov, who may be best known for authoring a law banning LGBTQ+ “propaganda,” proposed punishing those who go against what he called the “natural” state of marriage by sending them to war during a recent hearing.

A video shared to X, formerly Twitter, by Ukrainian internal affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko earlier this week shows Milonov being greeted with a smattering of laughter was he was proposing the punishment.

Milonov argued that would-be divorcees should be forced to pay a fine of 100,000 rubles, about $1,134, or be sent to serve “compulsory labor” during the so-called “special military operation,” Russia’s term for the Ukraine war.

“A fine of 100,000 rubles for divorce,” Milonov says in the video, according to Gerashchenko’s translation. “I would support it. Or sending to compulsory labor in the special military operation zone. Yes, it is necessary to penalize divorces. Marriage is natural, it’s a celebration.”

A fellow lawmaker responded to Milonov by saying that she didn’t “know” about his proposal before suggesting that he write a corresponding bill.

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Embassy of Russia in Washington, D.C., via email on Friday.

Milonov’s proposal was made during a hearing to discuss legislation to award 10,000 rubles, or $113, to Russians who marry under the age of 35, according to Russian state media outlet RT.

While RT’s reporting suggests that there is little chance the divorce punishment plan will become law, it would be in line with a number of other schemes that Moscow has used to bolster its military ranks during the war in Ukraine.

Newsweek previously reported that Russia had recruited more than 100,000 prisoners to fight in the war by offering them pardons. At least 1,000 are killed on the battlefield every week, according to Russian dissident-in-exile Vladimir Osechkin.

An intelligence assessment from the British Ministry of Defense in October suggested that Russia’s once-elite “Storm-Z” units had effectively become “penal battalions” that are considered a disposable resource and suffer high casualty rates.

Reports emerged earlier this month that claimed Russian authorities detained thousands of suspected illegal migrants on New Year’s Eve with the intention of forcing them to fight in Ukraine.

Russia is also offering incentives for would-be troops to volunteer, including an announcement last month that troops deployed to Ukraine would received tax-exempt status and “rewards and gifts” during the war, according to Al Jazeera.

Although Russia’s military reportedly includes over 1 million troops, an increasing number of the soldiers have purportedly been deserting their posts or surrendering to Ukraine as the war nears its two-year anniversary.

Ukrainian military officials said last week that over 100 Russian troops had recently surrendered near the embattled town of Avdiivka, while a full platoon of almost 40 troops abandoned the battlefield elsewhere to “flee towards Crimea” before being “hunted down” by their own army.