A father is seeking to establish the cause of death of a Volgograd resident in the SVO zone.

Ernest Khachaturov doubted the forensic examination findings, which listed heart disease as the cause of his son Alexander's death in the Special Military Operations Zone. He is demanding a re-examination. According to fellow soldiers, Alexander Khachaturov was killed in action.

Ernest Khachaturov from Volgograd lost his eldest son, who was killed in a special military operation in Ukraine. Along with the 27-year-old's body, his father received his personal belongings—a pectoral cross and a wedding ring. However, the death certificate stated that Alexander Khachaturov was not killed during a combat mission, but died of an illness, and the soldier's year of birth was listed incorrectly. According to the unit's command, he was found on the battlefield with a chest wound, V1 writes.

The Khachaturov family moved to Volgograd from Turkmenistan when their son was six years old. They do not have Russian citizenship. Sasha completed 9th grade and then began working in construction. The family also has a younger son. Ernest Khachaturov's wife died over 10 years ago.

While working in Moscow, doing apartment renovations, Alexander met a girl, and the couple had a son. Ernest claims that his partner influenced his son's decision to go to the war zone. According to him, his son had no documents—they were destroyed in a fire.

Alexander went to the SVO zone in June 2024. There, he served as a private rifleman. He explained his decision to his father, among other things, by saying that his participation in the fighting would allow his family to receive Russian citizenship. Alexander stopped communicating in November 2024. In

In December 2024, his father received a call from the political officer informing him that his son had gone on a combat mission and gone missing. A month later, he was informed that his son had been killed. The first document Ernest received was a notice from the military registration and enlistment office about his son's death, dated January 20, 2025.

"I inform you with great sadness that your son, Private Rifleman Alexander Ernestovich Khachaturov, born in 1997, having shown courage in the battles to liberate the DPR, was killed on December 13, 2024. "The death occurred during military service and is related to the performance of military duties during the SVO zone," the document states.

The death certificate states that the 27-year-old man died in the DPR from illness. The causes of death were left ventricular failure and atherosclerotic heart disease. The approximate time period between the onset of the disease and death is not specified. Moreover, the death certificate listed the wrong year of birth for my son.

"I went to Rostov-on-Don and changed the death certificate because the first one said 1977, and my son was born in 1997. I immediately noticed the diagnosis: this can't be true," the father says.

Since January 2025, Alexander's body has been in the Volgograd morgue. The father refused to bury his son and tried to find out what really happened to him.

"My son lay in the morgue for eight months, and I refused to bury him. People from the administration practically called me and said, 'Why aren't you burying him?' I won't bury him. When I saw this certificate, I immediately went to the military registration and enlistment office to understand what it all meant. 'Well, that means you might not get your payments.' How so? "Well, he died from illness. We'll call now and find out." She calls the morgue, and they tell her, "There was a mix-up at the unit." How could there have been a mix-up at the unit if they found him on the battlefield? He went into battle, got sick, and died? Is that what it looks like?" he says.

According to his son's comrades, about a month after his death, the unit commander and the chief medical officer went to the battlefield, where they found Alexander's body. The chief physician discovered a chest wound, but there is no official confirmation of this, says Ernest Khachaturov.

The investigator then sent a request to the military unit regarding the circumstances of the soldier's death, and several months later, the father received a new notification from the military registration and enlistment office.

"Your son, a private rifleman, while participating in the Special Military Operations for the Demilitarization and Denazification of Ukraine, while carrying out a combat mission, demonstrating heroism and courage, died on December 13, 2024. His death is related to the performance of his military duties," the document states.

While his son's body lay in the morgue, the father wrote complaints and appeals to every possible authority, but, according to him, it took months to receive a response. Eight months later, Alexander's coffin was returned to the Rostov-on-Don morgue.

At the end of April 2025, Ernest received the results of the forensic examination. However, he is certain that no autopsy was performed, and that the results included the details of a different soldier—born in 1977.

Ernest Khachaturov is seeking a second forensic examination, but the Military Investigative Directorate for the Southern Military District told him there are no grounds for an additional or repeat forensic examination of the body.

He says he doesn't believe his son died of illness. "I requested a combat logbook, which should indicate when he went into battle, the date he went missing, and when he was found. The chief medical officer should have inserted an insert when he examined him. But they won't give it to me," Khachaturov is quoted as saying in the publication.

State awards, memorial plaques, and appearances on Channel One do not guarantee state support for the families of those killed, according to the "Caucasian Knot" article "Three Comrades Served: How the Authorities Are Denying Benefits to the Families of Killed Volunteers," which describes the stories of soldiers from other regions. "For example, we paid for the zinc coffin ourselves for 47,000 rubles," said the widow of one of the killed soldiers.