Brigade commanders ask who wants to guard the second gunners unit. Their official status is missing in action. They were furious. "I'm morally exhausted. Troops are saying no to officers, knowing that punishment is light while Russia is not technically at war. The beach, just north of Odessa in southern Ukraine, was defended with mines and anti-tank hedgehogs. Such an action would be "premature" without having assessed the harm to the military service he was involved in, the prosecutor said. Just refuse," Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. 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. He told me his face was covered in blood," the father said while speaking to the outlet. But significant damage has been done to that army, which has confronted logistical problems, poor morale and an underestimated Ukrainian resistance. Command post guard duty? In his unit of 50 people, 10 were killed and 10 others wounded. 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. I will serve my remaining time and then I am out of here, he said. He revealed to his father what had happened to him in detention: how a "different group" of Russian soldiers had tried to force him to fight. In another incident where Russian soldiers have been accused of refusing to fight in Ukraine, the country's Operational Command South said Sunday in a Facebook post that a Russian military unit deployed in the south would not fight because of a lack of vital supplies such as water. Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. Sergey says he is traumatised by his experience in Ukraine. A Russian court sentenced Marsel Kandarov to five years in prison for refusing to take part in the special military operation. He refused. On 15 February, Ukraines Defence Intelligence reported that Russias losses were the largest since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Never mind the myriad reports of Russian troops refusing to fight by the thousands, sabotaging their own shoddy equipment and even deliberately wounding themselves to abandon the war, Russian . The human rights activist said Kononov may be sent to serve in Ukraine again, explaining that the punishment means it will be even more difficult for him to achieve early dismissal. "I can see that the war continues, it is not going away," he told the BBC. It's not just Ukrainians resisting Vladimir . Separately, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for beating an officer during an argument, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday. Ukrainian soldiers move on the road in the freed territory in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. "Those refusing to fight are doing so because they've had more than their fair share of front line action," explains Elena Popova. Ilya Kononov, a contract soldier from the city of Pskov in western Russia, was charged with "unauthorized abandonment of the unit" in July, court records show. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' as trains crashed, Bieber cancels remaining Justice world tour dates, Daily walk prevents one in 10 early deaths - study, Trump lashes out at Murdoch over vote fraud case, Uranium particles enriched to 83.7% found in Iran, Why the lab-leak theory is being taken seriously, Finland starts construction of Russia border fence. It is unfair, I am fighting in this war just as the others in Ukraine, risking my life, the soldier said. RUSSIAN soldiers are suffering from low morale with some reportedly refusing to fight the war in Ukraine, according to a member of an elite Russian army unit on the ground. By early July, Kaminsky said, he'd had enough: He refused to fight, one of 78 soldiers from his brigade who have refused orders. 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. They forgot their military oaths, the ceremonial promise, their vows of duty to their Fatherland, the board reads. Western intelligence agencies say Russias losses are substantial; a top British military commander told the BBC this week that up to 50,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the invasion was launched on February 24. Instead they were expected to operate without even basic equipment, such as night vision devices, he says. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much By Robert Coalson. Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. 1 min read. The range of experience varies. Some Russian soldiers and even whole units are "refusing to fight" in Ukraine, top UK security officials reported today. Alexander Avilov / Moskva News Agency. Putin needs to make a decision regarding mobilisation in the coming weeks, said Rob Lee, a military analyst. I still havent seen her. Once again, we have changed their names. Of the 78 soldiers from Kaminskys unit who have disobeyed orders, some have been ordered held in a makeshift brig for days, he said. His superiors argued that he should not be given the monetary compensation of up to 2,500 that wounded Russians are entitled to by law because his injury took place on Russian soil meaning it did not fall under the rules of Russias special military operation. By India Today Web Desk: As Russian troops try to take control over Ukraine's capital Kyiv, residents of the city are taking up arms to stand in the fight along with the country's military against Moscow's invasion.India Today's Rajesh Pawar visited an office of the Territorial Defence Forces in the city, where citizens are being equipped with weapons to defend against and fight off the . DeSantis won't say he's running. They've spent time in the trenches, getting cold and hungry, but when they come back they just get shouted and sworn at by their commanders.". Russian soldier Ilya Kaminsky says rank-and-file troops have "absolutely no trust" in their higher command. Perhaps this is due to the weather conditions, which doesnt allow them to actively use military equipment now, the spokesperson said. Many soldiers, therefore, have chosen to be fired or transferred rather than going into the meat grinder, he said. Russia Ukraine War One Year Anniversary Ukrainian troops and their UK military instructors, commemorate lives lost in the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a sunrise commemorative service, at . One consequence of the Kremlin refusing to declare war on Kyiv - the regime insists that its invasion is a "special military operation", a distinct legal status - is that its options for forcing servicemen to the front are more limited. Argument | Michael Walzer. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. I want to return to my family and not in a casket.. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron! More than 26,000 Russian military personnel have been killed in . All Rights Reserved. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) A U.S. Army veteran from Wisconsin died on Feb. 16 while fighting on the . In another incident, Sergey says he had to overtake comrades trapped inside a burning vehicle in front of him. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.". "You've got relatives there. He was soon transferred to Belgorod, a Russian city close to the border with Ukraine, where he has been stationed since. It said that the troops lacked support, while personnel in advanced positions didn't have water. I understand everything, of course. War-weary Russian soldiers have been thrown in jail by their commanders after they refused to fight in Ukraine over the invasions total disregard for human life, a new report claims. A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an imitation. The discontent in Kaminskys 11th Brigade is not an isolated case, and there are indications that Russian commanders are trying different tactics to keep the problem from spiraling out of control: for example, publicly shaming soldiers who are refusing to fight. But, after a few months, he made the decision to sign a two-year professional contract which would also give him a salary. Quote from the General Staff: "Troops from the so-called . As casualties have mounted, so have Ukrainian officials' efforts to appeal directly to the Russian people, saying they are being lied to about a war Moscow still calls a "special operation . 02:32. Ukraine's Operational Command South reported in a . We arent officially in a state of war, so they could not force me to go.. "There are held in pits, tortured and things like that. Im supposed to be ready for any situation; this war, this special operation, one soldier wrote. My daughter was born three months ago. The Insider. 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. Artillery sentry duty? 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. Anybody want it? the commander, a lieutenant colonel identified only by his surname Agafonov, can be heard telling the soldiers. We've received your submission. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in . 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. Andrei, a Russian lieutenant, stopped fighting. "So off he went to Ukraine. "In a situation when there is shelling or bombs falling, all normal people cannot help but react to it, even on the physiological level. ", Russian mum's fight to save sons from Putin's war, Mariupol: 80 days that left a flourishing city in ruins, Pinned down by Russian fire in key frontline village. "But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. Born in Russia, he graduated from St. Petersburg State University and also received film and video production training at Bard College in New York. Homesick. A court in the Russian city of Ufa has sentenced a 24-year-old corporal to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine. We drove around it and on, firing as we went. The Insider. At the beginning of April, Sergey was sent back over the border to a camp on the Russian side. That's what people who have come from there say.". "Another reason is the foul way they're being treated. Russian . Russian paratroopers. But they eventually calmed down because there wasnt much they could do, he said. 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. Many Russian soldiers would rather be dismissed or transferred than fight in Ukraine. Other units include troops from private military companies like Vagner, or specialized, semiautonomous units overseen by Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. 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 his stand changed after the soldier found out he had been sent to fight with "no intelligence gathering, no preparation and no cover". The Ukrainian military on Friday reported significant fighting near Ivankiv, about 40 miles north west of Kyiv, as Russian forces apparently tried to advance on the capital from the north. What is being given to Ukraine by the UK? And that, unfortunately, life would prove that.". He's changed completely. "Pictures of Russian vehicles running out of fuel and casualties being abandoned where they . Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has supported its eastern neighbour in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.Before the start of the offensive, Belarus allowed the Russian Armed Forces to perform weeks-long military drills on its territory; however, the Russian troops did not exit the country after they were supposed to finish. The soldier, "not wanting to take part in a special . The head of Britain's GCHQ spy service said on Wednesday that new intelligence showed some Russian soldiers in Ukraine had refused to carry out orders, sabotaged their own equipment and . VideoRecord numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Russian military regulations provide some legal justification and procedures for soldiers who disobey orders, according to Sergei Krivenko, a rights activist -- particularly for those who state they are anti-war, or pacifists. 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. 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. When the soldiers of an elite Russian army brigade were told in early April to prepare for a second deployment to Ukraine, fear broke out among the ranks. 2023 BBC. The young Russian was among those men who enlisted. Timofei Rozhanskiy is a correspondent in Kyiv for Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. A Russian soldier who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine, he was beaten until his face was . Russian servicemen near Kherson, Ukraine - 20 May 2022, By Olesya Gerasimenko and Kateryna Khinkulova, A convoy of Russian military vehicles heading towards the Donbas region - 23 February 2022, Local residents by a destroyed Russian tank in Sloboda, Chernihiv, Ukraine - 8 May 2022, Banner with the letters Z and V, in support of the Russian military, on a building in Moscow - 19 May 2022, Russian service personnel rehearse for the Victory Day Parade in Moscow - 7 May 2022, President Vladimir Putin visits soldiers wounded during the conflict in Ukraine - 25 May 2022, Pinned down by Russian fire in key front line village. I didn't look back.". The whole time, not a single document was provided that would explain our arrest. Russia announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September after suffering battlefield defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces. He had helped oversee fighting in eastern Ukraine. Each of our interviewees had dealt with dozens of cases and believed those soldiers were also sharing advice with their colleagues. He said he himself had written some 20 complaints and demands for reassignment, but his superior officers had rejected them -- or even tore the papers up completely. If no ones willing to take the offers from the brigade commanders, I wont detain you. Russian resistance is growing against Putin's war. In particular, conscripts are starting to cancel their contracts. Russia struggles to replenish its troops in Ukraine. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.". Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. Sergey was told that returning to the unit was important because simply leaving could be interpreted as desertion, which can result in a two-year sentence in a disciplinary battalion. Deployed to Ukraine in July, Andrei was placed in detention for refusing to carry out orders. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, Quote from the General Staff: "Troops from the so-called volunteer Cossack Detachment, attached to the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Pacific Fleet, are refusing to continue to take part in offensive operations due to the failure of the offensive and significant personnel losses near Vuhledar.". April 16, 2022 17:49 GMT. Newsweek was unable to independently verify those claims but reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment. Poland sent the German-made tanks to help Ukraine repel Russian troops and send a "clear and measurable signal of further support", said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who was visiting Kyiv . When his son was sent to fight in Ukraine, Sergei begged him not to go. The latest as of 7.15 a.m. Not only are they clueless, but they're simply refusing to fight, Scherba, who is currently in western Ukraine, tells co-host Molly-Jong-Fast. I told him: 'Better to take it. The soldier is in the unit, hes not running away anywhere. A Russian military unit deployed in Ukraine's south has refused to fight over a lack of vital supplies such as water, Ukraine said Sunday. We were illegally jailed.. Earlier Ukraines General Staff reported that invading Russian forces were seeing mass desertion among its troops amid Ukrainian military successes. Frank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine. But from our own side.". Ilya Kononov, a contract soldier from the city of Pskov in western Russia, was charged with "unauthorized . Along with eight others, Dmitri told his commanders that he refused to rejoin the invasion. Almost all his comrades were under the age of 25. It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. As they stopped for the evening in an abandoned farm, their commander said: "Well, as you will have worked out by now, this is not a joke. "It's a way of making people go back into that bloodbath," says Elena Popova from Russia's Movement of Conscientious Objectors. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. 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. Hes not refusing to carry out orders, so the article on insubordination or disobeying orders isnt relevant either, because hes not refusing to do so, he said. There are no legal grounds to start a criminal case if a soldier refuses to fight while on Russian territory.. Russian troops also lost territory in the southern Kherson region as well as the Lyman transport hub in eastern Ukraine. In July, the father of a Russian soldier told The Insider that troops were being detained or moved to a detention center in the occupied Luhansk region if they attempted to leave their posts. "I don't want to go [back to Ukraine] to kill and be killed," says Sergey - not his real name - who spent five weeks fighting in Ukraine earlier this year. In a rare public spat involving the Kremlin, 25 National Guard 'refuseniks' defied their . And that means he cant be prosecuted for desertion or going AWOL. Ukraine's leader pledged Friday to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion that upended their lives and Europe's security. Here's what he saw, CNN reporter returns to Russia for first time since January, Kremlin to showcase its military power in May 9th parade. We've changed them to protect their identities. Without a formal . It doesn't make sense. They would be looking at time in prison.. ", "People here don't understand how much danger we're in. Sergei made several trips to the front line to try to secure his son's release. Read about our approach to external linking. By Timofei Rozhanskiy. Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. In October, a new general was appointed to lead Russia's offensive. A lawyer told Sergey and two like-minded colleagues to return their arms and go back to their unit's headquarters - where they should file a letter explaining that they were "morally and psychologically exhausted" and could not continue fighting in Ukraine. That is not to say that prosecutions are not being attempted. Although Sergey does not want to return to the front line, he does want to complete his outstanding military service in Russia to avoid any unforeseen consequences. My son told me, 'I never thought my own country would treat me this way.' Some troops are refusing orders, walking away from military bases or crossing the border into Ukraine and switching sides, media reports show. Sergey is just one of hundreds of Russian soldiers understood to have been seeking such advice. Belarus allowed Russia to stage part of the invasion from its . Jan 27, 2023. Hundreds of Russian soldiers have refused to fight or fled their posts since the war in Ukraine began, according to report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. I understood that I had to refuse so I could stay alive, he said. Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. A Russian soldier has been sentenced for refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. He said the "Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations of human rights" being witnessed in the world today. Not from the opposing side. 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. 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. The soldier was a serving officer in the Russian army when Mr Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 23. Russians might be in favour of the conflict, but they dont actually want to fight, he said, adding that a general mobilisation would entail colossal losses of untrained soldiers. In . Moscow initially put about 80% of its main ground combat forces 150,000 men into the war in February, according to western officials. "I had thought that we were the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world," says the young man bitterly. 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. 'I Had To Refuse So I Could Stay Alive' He simply declares that he has anti-war convictions. A group of Russian soldiers are suing the army after they were fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine. 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. For some Russians, refusing to return to the front line may be a moral stand. Approximately 60 paratroopers from Russia's Pskov region have refused to be deployed to Ukraine, newspaper Pskovskaya . The attack is doubly unjust. 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 has also turned to mercenaries to bolster its war efforts, deploying fighters from the shadowy Kremlin-linked Wagner group. I didnt think I would quit, but it happened because of my wifes difficult pregnancy, when I asked for a delay until after she gave birth, a third soldier told Current Time in a VK message. Almost immediately his unit found itself under attack. The soldier, along with several others who decided not to take part in the fight anymore, put his refusal in writing. 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