Russian soldiers returning from Ukrainian war bolstering Saint Petersburg’s prostitution.

Sept 2025 : Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, prostitution has changed radically in Saint Petersburg. Soldiers returning from the front made up around half the clientele in illegal brothels. Sex workers are among the most vulnerable groups in Russian society, and violence at the hands of soldiers has become especially difficult to guard against.

Svetlana, a graduate aged 30 is a prostitute in St. Petersburg. She needs to raise her two children on her own while also caring for her mother, who suffers from a chronic illness. She has been working for the past seven years. Unlike when she first started, most business are now only operated from the client’s home or saunas, since Police in the recent years have augmented conducting regular raids and shutting them down en masse.

But the police aren’t the biggest problem — the Veterans of Russia’s War in Ukraine (VRWU) cause far more trouble. Until recently, about half of her clients were from the war. She thinks it is because they get large payouts and the money seemed to burn a hole in their pockets. Last September, a soldier came in with no arms or legs. He had spent three million rubles [over $35,000], then borrowed money from her to buy a ticket back home to Volgograd. But lately, for some reason, the share of VRWU among their clients has fallen.

Many of them behave horribly, turning irrevocably hostile on about how they’re heroes, and so on. The more reasonable ones will book girls for longer stretches, drink with them, sing songs. In general, the VRWU drink heavily and use a lot of drugs. Probably trying to forget the war, though according to Svetlana that doesn’t help, it only makes things worse. They drink too much or snort too much and completely lose their mind.  They all have psychological issues to some degree.

Svetlana feels that prosecutors are trying not to open criminal cases against VRWU these days, instead have given them free rein. Recently, two other women accompanying Svetlana went on a call to some soldiers. One of them suddenly turned on them, started swearing, and at one point shouted: “I cut the heads off Ukes, you think I won’t cut yours off?” Another VRWU stepped in to defend us, and they ended up fighting while we ran. At another place, a soldier chased one of the girls around the apartment with a knife, yelling: “I’m used to killing”; Luckily, she managed to escape. But Svetlana wasn’t so lucky enough, as one VRWU grabbed her by the hair and tore the skin on her scalp. She needed suturing.

Svetlana reiterated that lot of these clients are in wheelchairs. “On a few calls, we had to help re-bandage their wounds which was scary, but what can you do? Once, I spoke with a contract soldier lying on the bed. All he had left was a single finger on one hand; he’d lost both legs and the other arm. I asked if the money was worth it. Of course, he said no”.

The worst case was a man who had once given up his young son to an orphanage, then just before the boy turned 18 restored his parental rights and brought him home. Then the war started, and the father compelled his son to sign a contract. The boy, only just 18, was called to glory at the front, while the father was spending his enlistment bonus on us.

Another lady Olga who is also in her mid-thirties is unmarried, while for the past several years, she is trying to leave the sex trade but hasn’t been able to, weighed down by debts her parents accumulated. In St. Petersburg, women in sex work typically earn far above the city’s average salary.

10 or 15 years ago, the main danger came from thugs. Now it’s from the VRWU’s. They’re not great clients for sure, they pay well enough, but their minds are broken. “How am I supposed to feel about them, when in Rostov they once cornered my friend and some other girls in a sauna and beat them half to death? I’ve been lucky so far”.

It is even dangerous to speak with them, letting them joke on their own. They might take something the wrong way, and then someone faces a knife at her throat. Olga fails to understand how anyone can imagine building a relationship or family with men like that. They could easily kill their wife and kids. They can’t live without the war in civilian life, so they take it out on women. She hates entertaining them. “I try to erase any encounters with them from my memory as quickly as I can. Some of the girls don’t mind them, since they like that they have money”.

Olga further stated, “From what I’ve seen, hardly any of the VRWUs actually wanted to go to war. Many said they were forced, and some even spoke out against it. I never met any true believers. Most went for the money, and it would seem they get it easily. Or maybe they just don’t value it — I don’t know. But everything they earn by killing, they throw away here on nothing: not on family, not on the future, just on prostitutes, alcohol, and drugs. There’s nothing to talk about with them. I don’t see any future in their eyes. Many are disabled now; what plans can they possibly make? I went to see soldiers who’d lost their arms, or their legs. They want to indulge in sex, but it’s difficult for them when you don’t have any legs? It’s not the most pleasant sight”.

The brothels that are still taking clients have been putting on more and more security because of the VRWU’s, sometimes even armed guards. This business has survived and will keep on surviving. It doesn’t matter whether the war ends or continues, or what measures the state takes. Maybe it will evolve, though maybe only fortified buildings will remain, like prisons, with guards and dogs.

Olga concluded stating that, “I worked steadily in the trade for 12 of the past 15 years. Then I finally started thinking more clearly. I can’t say whether I’ll stay in it. Life always seems to throw something at me that pulls me back in, even though I don’t want to return. In a crisis, the trade can keep you afloat. But it’s something you have to leave”.

Team Maverick