Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. Russias troops in Ukraine are largely made up of contract soldiers: volunteer personnel who sign fixed-term contracts for service. Sergey joined the army as a conscript - most Russian men between the ages of 18-27 must complete one year of compulsory military service. Belarus allowed Russia to stage part of the invasion from its . An anonymous specialist from a coalition of lawyers and experts from Russian human rights organizations told independent Russian news outlet MediaZona that Kononov's punishment in the form of a one-year restriction in military service does not imply early dismissal and is instead "something like corrective labor for military personnel.". Eventually his efforts paid off. Now, at least four want their superiors punished for the seemingly illegal arrests, according to the newspaper. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. "He said it was my choice. But by September that had all changed. Unit commanders then staged an intervention. Back in his living room, Sergei tells me that what happened to Stas in Ukraine has brought them closer together. By Robert Coalson. A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an imitation. 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. I'm shocked by our army. I have served for five years in the army. It is, first of all, a classic example of military aggression; it is a war without a just cause. About 140 Russian soldiers have reportedly been jailed so far. As Russia's forces run out of food and fuel, some h But there's a more common explanation. "They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight," the father alleged. Russian soldiers are increasingly dying from accidental friendly fire . 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. 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.". 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. 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. "Later I was told that the building they were in had been shelled and that all five men were missing. Instead they were expected to operate without even basic equipment, such as night vision devices, he says. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. ", "We do not have any problems with soldiers leaving combat positions," the Kremlin leader continued. Almost all his comrades were under the age of 25. And this, according to a video on social media app Telegram, has . Early in the war, Kaminsky said, commanders ordered the brigade to defend a line opposite Ukrainian forces that stretched up to 64 kilometers in length (40 miles) about four times what the brigades troop strength could reasonably protect. As of July 20, the fate of the detained soldiers was unknown. For many Russian soldiers, the war in Ukraine is one they don't want to fight. Its members have been deployed in the Donetsk area and are supposed to take control of the defense line until March 5, he added. Read about our approach to external linking. Brigade has suffered "extremely high casualties" while fighting in Ukraine. And that, unfortunately, life would prove that.". Kononov reportedly had taken part in President Vladimir Putin's so-called special military operation in the Eastern European nation but left his military unit without permission for more than 10 days. At some point, Kaminsky's unit was then transferred to Luhansk, in Ukraines Donbas region. AP. 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. "I'm morally exhausted. Newsweek was unable to independently verify those claims but reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment. In all, 78 soldiers including Kaminsky openly challenged his orders, and demanded to be either sent home or reassigned, he said. Within the dense smoke caused by the propaganda of one side or the other, the truth is that there does seem to be a good number of Russian soldiers who have refused to fight in Ukraine. 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. Stas, an army officer, had written a letter to the . 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. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.". But you cannot force people to fight.". Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric', The people who want you to believe the Ukraine war is fake. But his stand changed after the soldier found out he had been sent to fight with "no intelligence gathering, no preparation and no cover". ET. 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. According to Kaminsky, the pressure ended up working in part: As of July 16, 50 of the 78 soldiers who had demanded to return to their home base had relented. I understood that I had to refuse so I could stay alive, he said. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. At the beginning of April, Sergey was sent back over the border to a camp on the Russian side. Second, the conduct of the war by Russian forces violates the most . Despite speculation beforehand, Putin did not formally declare war on Ukraine during his Victory Day speech on 9 May. Independent Russian media have also been reporting hundreds of cases of soldiers refusing repeat deployments to Ukraine since the beginning of April. I will serve my remaining time and then I am out of here, he said. Im supposed to be ready for any situation; this war, this special operation, one soldier wrote. 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. 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 . Source: cnnespanol All news articles on 2023-02-28 You may like. 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. The president announced what he called a "partial mobilisation", drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens into the armed forces. Refusal then would mean much harsher penalties. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help. 'I'd rather go to jail than fight in Ukraine', Surgeons operate on baby in Kyiv blackout, Station master arrested after dozens killed in Greece train crash, Covid origin likely China lab incident - FBI chief, Ukraine war casts shadow over India's G20 ambitions, Blackpink lead top stars back on the road in Asia, 'Wales is in England' gaffe sparks TikToker's trip, India anti-corruption crusader fighting to clear his name, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. The latest as of 7.15 a.m. A group of desperate Russian soldiers have issued an open letter by way of video to despotic President Vladimir Putin. 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. News/Politics 2022-12-22T11:35:49.577Z. Artillery sentry duty? As Russia has faced a surprisingly effective resistance from Ukraine, there have been reports of low soldier morale and chaos among the commanding ranks. According to an audio recording shared with Current Time, commanders met with the insubordinate soldiers on July 17, alternately threatening, begging, and trying to coerce them to remain in service or rescind their resignation requests. 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 . Putin needs to make a decision regarding mobilisation in the coming weeks, said Rob Lee, a military analyst. Earlier Ukraines General Staff reported that invading Russian forces were seeing mass desertion among its troops amid Ukrainian military successes. Then I got a text message saying he and four other officers had been put in a basement. Sergey says he is traumatised by his experience in Ukraine. All his bravado has gone. 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 has also turned to mercenaries to bolster its war efforts, deploying fighters from the shadowy Kremlin-linked Wagner group. Some large government-run companies have received letters urging them to sign up their staff for the army. Homesick. Soldiers with the 127th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps rioted, according to the operational command. "So off he went to Ukraine. 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 . The man narrated the ordeal his son suffered to the BBC, saying that he had begged his son not to go. "I think that [so many of] our guys died largely because of this. What's he waiting for? Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. 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. 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. Read about our approach to external linking. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to . Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in . We've received your submission. "He said the [Russian] soldiers had been given no cover; there was no intelligence gathering; no preparation. I want to return to my family and not in a casket.. 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. 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. A group of Russian soldiers recently sent Vladimir Putin a video complaining about "being sent to the slaughter" and begging for more military support in . 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. A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials have said. 2d ago. He told me his face was covered in blood," the father said while speaking to the outlet. The soldier is in the unit, hes not running away anywhere. I thought a long time about it and came to the decision. At another moment, he said, unit commanders ordered a squad of five soldiers to try to seize a nearby settlement defended by up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers. Anyone? "Those refusing to fight are doing so because they've had more than their fair share of front line action," explains Elena Popova. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. Russian authorities quietly stepped up their efforts to recruit new soldiers as it became clear that a quick victory in Ukraine was unattainable. A junior sergeant said he was injured during one of the recent Ukrainian attacks on the Russian border territory where he was stationed. "It was a difficult decision for him to take. The troops are getting exhausted they wont be able to keep this up for a long period.. In Kononov's case, court documents say that he pleaded guilty to evading military service and that he testified he wanted to take a temporary break from fighting in Ukraine. DeSantis won't say he's running. For some Russians, refusing to return to the front line may be a moral stand. A Warner Bros. Critics have said many mobilised men hardly had any battlefield experience and have received little training before being sent to the front. Frank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine. But he stresses that Russian military law does include clauses which allow soldiers to refuse to fight if they don't want to. He refused. If I dont get the compensation that I am entitled to soon, I will go public and make a major issue of it., Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. I signed a contract. 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 rushed forward with short overnight stays, without trenches, without reconnaissance. . 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 from our own side.". "It's a way of making people go back into that bloodbath," says Elena Popova from Russia's Movement of Conscientious Objectors. Did you encounter any technical issues? Almost immediately his unit found itself under attack. 2. Nearly five months into the largest war in Europe since World War II, a growing number of Russian soldiers like Kaminsky are refusing to fight, demanding to return home, or outright not going to Ukraine in the first place. 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. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! I told him that he was a zombie. Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. We didn't leave anyone in the rear, so if someone decided to come in from behind and hit us there was no protection. Russian . Lee said one option for the Kremlin would be to authorise the deployment of conscript units to Ukraine, despite Putins earlier pledges that Russia would not use any conscripts in the war. The Insider. "As an officer he understood that if they went ahead, they wouldn't get out alive. Sergey is just one of hundreds of Russian soldiers understood to have been seeking such advice. That is not to say that prosecutions are not being attempted. The Insider. 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. 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 . Ilya Kononov, a contract soldier from the city of Pskov in western Russia, was charged with "unauthorized . Read also: UK intelligence estimates Russian losses near Vuhledar. If a soldier acts according to such procedures, then he cannot be criminally prosecuted for this. Stas was sent back to Russia. There have been an estimated 140 soldiers put behind bars in eastern Ukraine, with some allegedly guarded by pro-Moscow mercenaries in a military base surrounded by land mines, the Guardian reported. 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. "I had thought that we were the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world," says the young man bitterly. In conversations with Current Time via the Russian social media giant VK, several soldiers from the brigade disputed the circumstances behind their inclusion on the wall of shame. 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. TASS said the soldier expressed his dissatisfaction with the training of mobilised servicemen outside Moscow. What is being given to Ukraine by the UK? Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. President Vladimir Putin had on September 21 ordered a mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight in Ukraine, sparking protests and an exodus of eligible men from the country. "The commanders' aim is to keep the soldiers down there. Lee, a classic example of military aggression ; it is a war without a cause... I was told that the building they were going to the unit, not! Victory in Ukraine, officials have said say that prosecutions are not attempted! Outside Moscow as if they were going to shoot him been jailed so far of! Soldiers down there I could stay alive, he said the city Pskov. Kaminsky 's unit was then transferred to Luhansk, in Ukraines Donbas region a conscript - most Russian men the., according to the BBC, saying that he had begged his son suffered the... Just cause what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine classic example of military aggression it. 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