Instances of soldiers refusing to go to the battlefield are increasing and coming to light. Meanwhile, Moscow tries to recruit more personnel to fight in the Ukrainian country
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FILE PHOTO: Members of the service of the pro-Russian troops (REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko)
A report revealed that hundreds of Russian soldiers escaped from the battlefield in Ukraine or refused to participate in the invasion . The information was obtained from military documents, as well as from deserters who gave their testimonies, quoted by The Wall Street Journal.
After the partly failed invasion of Ukraine, where the Kremlin planned to take full control of the country, take the capital kyiv and impeach the Ukrainian president, the hundreds of defections and the insubordination of soldiers aggravate the problem for Moscow. In addition, everything represents a humiliation for Vladimir Putin.
Against this background, the Kremlin is in trouble, since it does not know how to operate and punish defectors without the issue coming to light in Russia. In addition, the Russian army needs to incorporate more military personnel. If it becomes known that there are soldiers who don’t want to fight in Ukraine, recruitment will be less and less, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Moscow, for the moment, has only fired defecting soldiers. It has not taken any other measures. Also,there is little legal basis for tougher sanctions, as Russia has not formally declared war on Ukraine.
“A lot of people don’t want to fight,” Mikhail said Benyash, a Russian lawyer who represents dozens of Russian soldiers, told The Wall Street Journal.
Benyash is helping soldiers who have appealed their fired after they refused to fight in Ukraine in February.
A Ukrainian soldier sitting on a captured Russian armored vehicle marked with the “Z” symbol, used by Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine (REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
Albert Sakhibgareev, a 24-year-old Russian soldier, was sent to the Russian region of Belgorod for military exercises on February 8. And when Putin made a speech on February 21 in which he did not recognize Ukraine’s right to be an independent state, the troops he was with had their phones confiscated and were told to wear bulletproof vests. The soldiers didn’t know what was coming or what they had to do, they were just ordered to unload Soviet-era shells and ammunition.
On February 24, he awoke to the roar of artillery fire. Two shells had hit near the barracks where he was located, which was located near the border with Ukraine. The atmosphere was tense, planes and helicopters were en route to Ukraine. Sakhibgareev still didn’t know what was going on, but before long he learned the truth. He opened Telegram and read a headline that read: “Russia invades Ukraine” . When he found out, he refused to fight, fled the military base and went into hiding.
“None of us wanted this war,” Sakhibgareev said.
Sakhibgareev’s mother said her son enlisted out of patriotism and because there were few career opportunities in their small town, The Wall Street Journal reported.
FILE PHOTO: Soldiers Russians in a tank during maneuvers in Leningrad Oblast (REUTERS)
“I raised a tall, athletic son and gave him up for the defense of the country”, he said the deserting soldier’s mother.
Cases like Sakhibgareev’s are among the thousands. Lawyer Benyash says that after publishing about several cases of deserters, he received more than 1,000 requests for legal assistance from the military and members of the Russian Ministry of the Interior. The vast majority of the cases involved public officials or soldiers who had defied orders related to the invasion of Ukraine.
Recently, in a Russian military court in the Kabardia-Balkaria region (south ) confirmed the dismissal of 115 soldiers who refused to participate in the brutal offensive launched by Vladimir Putin’s regime in Ukraine.
The court concluded that the military refused “arbitrarily fulfilling an official mission.”
The court said that it examined the “necessary documents” and questioned officials of the National Guard, an internal security force that is also involved in operations in Ukraine, but is separate from the Russian army.
The hearing was held behind closed doors so as not to reveal “military secrets”, added the court, which does not specify where the soldiers were punished in Russia.
The court’s press service, quoted by the Interfax press agency, indicated that the soldiers were members of the National Guard who refused to carry out a mission related to Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine.
FILE PHOTO: Soldiers armed men alongside Russian army vehicles (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Moscow was trying to“reinforce the number of troops with personnel discharged from military service since 2012″. In the invasion, it used approximately 80% of its total available, trained, and combat-experienced ground force of 150,000 personnel. Thousands of messages have appeared in chats and social networks from men complaining about having received a notification to report to their barracks as soon as possible. “I am 44 years old, I stopped being a soldier in 2012, I cannot leave my wife and children, my career. I haven’t trained for 9 years. What do they want me for?” Dimitri wrote in a military chat quoted by the Kyiv Independent.
And while trying increase in recruitment, more soldiers who rebel are coming to light. For example, transcripts of two audio files recorded by soldiers and published by the independent Russian media Mediazonadocumented cases of soldiers who refused orders from their superiors.
“You can’t not go,” a Russian commander said in a recording. “If you don’t go there, you will spend 15 years in the [prison] yard,” he threatened the soldier.
The soldier defended himself and said that he had spoken with lawyers. “Bring your lawyers here,” the commander replied. “We will have a talk with them.”
Western intelligence agencies say that there is ample evidence of chaos and disorder among Russian forces in Ukraine.