Ukraine War: Is Russia's Morale Broken?

Reports of deserters are piling up

Created: 03/19/2022, 18:22

By: Caroline Schäfer

Russia records losses.

According to media reports, Russian soldiers shot themselves in the legs to escape the Ukraine war.

• Since February 24, Russia* has been at war with Ukraine*.

• Russia's President Vladimir Putin* has large cities like Kyiv* and Mariupol besieged.

• The losses on the part of the Russian army are increasing.

  In order to escape from the Ukraine conflict*, soldiers are said to have self-inflicted injuries.

Kyiv – The Ukraine war* now lasts more than three weeks.

Fighting and attacks continue on the 24th day of the Russian invasion.

As reported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around three million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since the beginning of the war.

But the first people seeking protection have also arrived in Germany.

Not only people living in Ukraine want to escape from the war.

According to media reports, Russian soldiers shot themselves in the legs to avoid the fighting.

As reported by the New York Post newspaper, the armed forces are said to have used Ukrainian ammunition.

This should give the impression that Russia's soldiers were hit by the defenders.

Police cordon off an area next to a building damaged by Russian shelling in Kyiv.

© Mykhaylo Palinchak/dpa

War in Ukraine: Russian soldiers apparently inflict gunshot wounds on themselves

"They've been shooting at us for 14 days.

We are scared.

We steal food, break into houses.

We are killing civilians,” the US newspaper The US Sun quoted a conversation between soldiers that was apparently intercepted by the Belarusian media project Nexta.

“Russian officers shoot themselves in the legs to get home.

There are dead bodies everywhere,” the conversation is said to have continued.

Soldiers are said to have been looking for "Ukrainian ammunition" "to shoot themselves in the legs and go to the hospital." So far, this has not been definitively verified.

However, deserters tend to suffer draconian penalties in Russia, which is why self-inflicted wounds using Ukrainian weapons and ammunition give at least the appearance of being inflicted in combat.

According to the Geneva Refugee Convention, deserters fleeing the Ukraine war of authoritarian Russia are entitled to asylum in an EU member state.

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Ukraine War: Footage shows Russian prisoners of war

As the Tagesschau reported, videos of captured Russian soldiers are said to have shown that they apologized for the Ukraine war and the civilian victims.

According to the New York Post, the prisoners admitted that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a "horrible mistake".

Putin gave orders to commit crimes.

It's not just about demilitarizing Ukraine or defeating Ukraine's armed forces, but now cities with peaceful civilians are being destroyed," Russian POWs are quoted as saying by CNN.

Stefan Oeter, professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hamburg, criticizes such recordings of the Ukraine war.

"Television pictures of prisoners of war are often problematic insofar as they show prisoners in degrading situations or degrade them in some other way," Oeter explained to the Tagesschau.

According to estimates by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, more than 14,000 casualties have been reported on the Russian side so far.

The ministry announced this on Friday (March 18, 2022) via Twitter.

Allegations of rape against Russian soldiers are also being raised.

Politicians from Ukraine are said to report on rapes by Russian armed forces.

(kas)