More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show, in what looks to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of . He had helped oversee fighting in eastern Ukraine. I understand everything, of course. That is not to say that prosecutions are not being attempted. 2023 BBC. Kononov said he stopped showing up at his unit and, instead, spent time with his friend at his home. Russian forces were driven out of much of the northeastern Kharkiv region in early September by a Ukrainian counter-offensive that allowed Kyiv to retake thousands of square kilometres of territory. I dont regret it one bit. 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As a result of what I believe were tactical and strategic mistakes made by my commanders and their total disregard for human life I made the decision not to continue in the military operation, one soldier jailed for over a week said in written testimony to prosecutors, which was observed by the Guardian. "This is all nonsense and fake claims and there is nothing to back them up with. Mr. Putin had resisted ordering a mobilization for months, but his decision underscored the Kremlin's struggles on the battlefield, where more than 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or . On 15 February, Ukraines Defence Intelligence reported that Russias losses were the largest since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. "There are held in pits, tortured and things like that. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports on the conflict in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin boasts of success, though some of his soldiers refuse to fight. Albert Sakhibgareev was sent near the Ukrainian border in early February for "training exercises," the . The soldiers testimony said war-weary soldiers were urged by superiors to return to the fight. We were illegally jailed.. TASS said the soldier expressed his dissatisfaction with the training of mobilised servicemen outside Moscow. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Youre just a soldier for them; youre nobody.. July 20, 2022 16:08 GMT. Finance chiefs at a Group of 20 conference in India this weekend issued a joint statement condemning Moscow for its war in Ukraine, with only China and Russia declining to sign. Theyre making everything so easy for you, guys. 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Feb. 27 2023, Published 8:05 a.m. A Russian soldier's service card was stamped "traitor" for refusing . In his unit of 50 people, 10 were killed and 10 others wounded. An investigation by the BBCs Russian service showed that Russias defence ministry filled employment websites with vacancies, offering people with no combat experience opportunities to join the army on lucrative short-term contracts. He believed it was right. There was no basic hygiene, the soldier said in the testimony, according to the Guardian. Leviev says his team estimates a sizeable minority of the Russian contract soldiers sent to Ukraine to fight in the initial invasion refused to go back again. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to . "But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. It caught fire and there were [Russian] soldiers inside. He refused. He heard of Russian servicemen so inexperienced that they "did not know how to shoot and couldn't tell one end of a mortar from another". I want to return to my family and not in a casket.. Servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Ukraine. Several lawyers and human rights activists the BBC spoke to said they had been regularly offering advice to men trying to avoid returning to Ukraine. Along with eight others, Dmitri told his commanders that he refused to rejoin the invasion. By early July, Kaminsky said, he'd had enough: He refused to fight, one of 78 soldiers from his brigade who have refused orders. appreciated. But without conscript battalions, Russia could soon struggle to hold the territory it currently controls in Ukraine, especially as Ukraine receives better equipment from Nato, he said. Russia launched the attack on Ukraine from three sides on February 24. It's not a war of liberation'," the man told the BBC. The soldier, not wanting to take part in a special military operation, did not report for duty in May 2022, said the press service on Thursday for courts in the region of Bashkortostan in the southern Urals. If no ones willing to take the offers from the brigade commanders, I wont detain you. Russian soldier Ilya Kaminsky says rank-and-file troops have "absolutely no trust" in their higher command. Each of our interviewees had dealt with dozens of cases and believed those soldiers were also sharing advice with their colleagues. Many of the newly mobilised troops were quick to complain that they were being sent to a war zone without sufficient equipment or adequate training. But his stand changed after the soldier found out he had been sent to fight with "no intelligence gathering, no preparation and no cover". But analysts say voluntary recruits and mercenary groups are unlikely to lead to a substantial increase in the number of new soldiers, compared with the numbers that a partial or a full-scale mobilisation would bring. Its members have been deployed in the Donetsk area and are supposed to take control of the defense line until March 5, he added. For the remainder, however, unit commanders ordered them arrested, and held in a makeshift brig in the Luhansk region, according to Kaminsky, where they were being given food only once a day. These people are ready for anything. He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help. Jan 27, 2023. Russia blaming Ukraine for killing of daughter of Putin ally. 2d ago. Critics have said many mobilised men hardly had any battlefield experience and have received little training before being sent to the front. For four and a half months, Corporal Ilya Kaminsky and his fellow soldiers from the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade have waged war as part of the grinding Russian military offensive that has slowly pushed Ukrainian troops back in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian service members are seen at the site of fighting with a Russian raiding group in Kyiv on the morning of February 26, 2022, according to Ukrainian service personnel at the scene. I have served for five years in the army. Russian troops release video as they say they will not fight. Brigade has suffered "extremely high casualties" while fighting in Ukraine. In the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, on the home base for the 205th Cossack Motorized Rifle Brigade, commanders have erected a wall of shame with the names, ranks, and photographs of some 300 soldiers who have disobeyed orders in the Ukraine war. Soldiers like Sergey - reluctant to return to the front line - are not unusual, according to Ruslan Leviev, the editor of Conflict Intelligence Team, a media project investigating the experiences of the Russian military in Ukraine through confidential interviews and open source material. The Russian defense ministry didnt respond to the Guardians request for comment. 'You're Nobody' The private then pushed the officer in the chest. Army commanders try to intimidate contract soldiers into staying with their units, according to Russian human rights lawyer Alexei Tabalov. More than 550,000 soldiers from Putin's failing army have been killed or injured so badly in Ukraine that they are no longer able to fight, according to Minusrus. But he stresses that Russian military law does include clauses which allow soldiers to refuse to fight if they don't want to. 17 Russian soldiers were reportedly detained, Russian military unit deployed in the south would not figh, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Russia announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September after suffering battlefield defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces. Human rights activist Sergei Krivenko says he is not aware of any prosecutions of those refusing to return to the front. News/Politics 2022-12-22T11:35:49.577Z. The contract soldier was subsequently sentenced on July 21 to restriction in military service for one year, with a 10 percent deduction from his monetary allowance going to the state. Just refuse," Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. "So many people don't . Kaminsky said discontent had been building in the unit for weeks, if not months. But you have until 6 p.m. today. Russian paratroopers. Some Russian troops are refusing to return to fight in Ukraine because of their experiences on the front line at the start of the invasion, according to Russian human rights lawyers and activists. People in Kyiv are being warned of street fighting and "subversive groups" on the third day of the Russian invasion, with reports of 198 Ukrainians dead nationwide since troops first crossed the . But even before that, there are many reports from our intelligence officers, who work quite successfully, about what is going at the enemy both in the rear and on the front line there are very frequent refusals to participate in hostilities., Read also: Russians pushing for breakthrough near Vuhledar, but unlikely to succeed, says UK intelligence. 2023 BBC. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.". .. Advertisement .. Russian Soldier Brutally Thrashed For Refusing To Fight In Ukraine War: Report, Arrested AAP Ministers Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain Quit Delhi Cabinet, Nithyananda's 'Republic Of Kailasa' At UN Meet. 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I will serve my remaining time and then I am out of here, he said. It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. Putin needs to make a decision regarding mobilisation in the coming weeks, said Rob Lee, a military analyst. In a rare public spat involving the Kremlin, 25 National Guard 'refuseniks' defied their . Sergey's complaints about lack of equipment have also emerged in phone conversations alleged to be between Russian soldiers and their families, intercepted and posted online by the Ukrainian security services. Troops from the Russian so-called Cossack Detachment are refusing to take part in offensive operations due to Russian forces heavy losses near Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast. Soldiers with the 127th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps rioted, according to the operational command. "They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight," the father alleged. "We were like blind kittens. Once again, we have changed their names. A Russian soldier who refused to fight in the war in Ukraine was allegedly beaten and locked up by his own comrades, according to a report. Also, according to Dmytrashkivskyi, the 136th Brigade, which was formed for the war in Chechnya, has arrived in the Vuhledar area. "I think that [so many of] our guys died largely because of this. - Ukraine's President . Stas told his father about one particular battle. R ussian troops have destroyed a concrete dam built in Ukraine's Kherson Region in 2014 to cut off water to Crimea, the RIA news agency quoted the governor of Russian-annexed Crimea Sergei . "It was a difficult decision for him to take. Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years behind bars for evading military service during mobilisation for more than a month. My daughter was born three months ago. Andrei, a Russian lieutenant, stopped fighting. I'm shocked by our army. Their official status is missing in action. The attack is doubly unjust. Almost all his comrades were under the age of 25. Paratroopers from the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade, based outside Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryatia region in eastern Siberia, arrived in Ukraines Kherson region on February 24, shortly after Russias invasion began. But after a certain adaptation period, our men fight brilliantly.". The code has been copied to your clipboard. A stamp that was purportedly placed in the military-service booklet of one soldier who refused to serve in Ukraine. Some soldiers, under the threat of violence, were simply driven out to unknown destinations, they have not been seen since, said Vladimir, according to the Guardian. When his son was sent to fight in Ukraine, Sergei begged him not to go. From Ukraine there have been multiple reports of mobilised Russian troops being detained - in some cases, locked in cellars and basements - for refusing to return to the frontline. We didnt have normal munitions, no flak jackets or helmets. By Timofei Rozhanskiy. But that means that - while his letter of refusal to fight was accepted - there are no guarantees he won't be sent back to Ukraine during his service period. RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. Almost immediately his unit found itself under attack. "In a situation when there is shelling or bombs falling, all normal people cannot help but react to it, even on the physiological level. A Russian soldier has been sentenced for refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. Some Russian troops are refusing to return to fight in Ukraine because of their experiences on the front line at the start of the invasion, according to Russian human rights lawyers and activists. President Vladimir Putin promised that only professional soldiers would take part in his "special military operation.". During wartime, rules are totally different. The Insider. The men, who belonged to the key headquarters of the Pskov . Ukrainian soldiers move on the road in the freed territory in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Second, the conduct of the war by Russian forces violates the most . The soldier, identified by the alias Vladimir, testified he was held in the town of Bryansk with about 80 soldiers guarded by the shadowy organization Wagner Group. CNN in Russia 10 videos. (Reuters Photo) Russian soldiers fighting the war in Ukraine are in disarray and crying as they are asked to "fire at . Russian forces have significantly reduced activity in the Vuhledar area due to the mass refusal of their troops to go on the offensive, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Tavriiskyi District forces, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, said on Feb. 27. . There are reports of mobilised Russian troops locked in cellars and basements for refusing to fight in Ukraine. 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