I consider "but I need money" not a good excuse for deciding to go murder countless number of people. I can absolutely sympathise with being very poor russian with no real hopes for social mobility, hell I've been one most of my life. What I can not excuse is the decision to go kill someone for a chance to escape it. I could not aggree with that in the 90th, when people were killing each other on the streets for money, I can't agree with it now.
Those poor sods who received a mobilisation order and decided to go - well, the fine for refusing that is 3k rubles (~30 bucks). They were forced with a fine of $30 and decided that going to another country to kill people is a preferred action.
The only people who aren't there willingly and knowingly, are the conscripts who were forced to sign the contract under the violence, and chronical alcoholics who lost the free will long ago. This is a very shitty situation, but the state of the army isn't exactly great, those people have both opportunities and moral obligation to run away.