"Were under great pressure": Russian recruits refuse to do military service - and are imprisoned by Putin's army
Created: 11/22/2022, 5:53 p.m
By: Momir Takac
Russian soldiers move on the front line in the Luhansk region.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Russian soldiers who refuse to do military service are apparently locked in basements.
A report is intended to show how chaotic the situation at the front is.
Moscow/Prague - Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not going as planned for President Vladimir Putin.
The war has been raging for nine months now and there is no end in sight to the bloodshed.
Although Ukraine can liberate many occupied territories, this is no reason for Moscow to give in.
Fierce fighting is raging in the Donbass.
Russia increased the troop presence there, including with soldiers who had been withdrawn from Kherson.
In addition, Putin is providing supplies by ordering more and more Russian men to the front.
But resistance to the draft is growing within the population.
Some leave the country, others refuse to take part in the war.
Ukraine War: Report Reveals What's in store for Russian Resisters to War
War conscientious objectors are apparently under great pressure, as research by
RadioFreeEurope
shows.
The Prague-based broadcaster, which is funded by the United States but says its journalists can work independently, reaches millions of people in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Now he has published a video describing the situation of Russian deserters.
For example, Russian soldiers who no longer want to fight in the Ukraine conflict are being held in dirty cellars in the Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
Relatives speaking in the video report that the resisters are under intense pressure and are being forced to return to the fight despite lacking the necessary equipment.
Russian recruits describe undignified conditions at the front
“He was held in a basement in Sayzewe, where all the other objectors are.
It should be 250 people,” says the sister of a soldier.
Her brother was ordered to Swatowe in the Luhansk region.
He and his comrades are said to have lived in a hall on wooden boards.
A video of the soldiers should prove that.
They are said to have been housed there for three days.
There is said to have been neither water nor food, they had to get their own provisions.
Finally they were sent to the front, without armored vehicles, without artillery support.
After heavy losses they had to withdraw, the commanders had left them in the lurch.
After returning to Russia, the horror began for deserters
After the retreat, they mostly had to sleep outdoors, Russian soldiers describe in a video in the
RadioFreeEurope
report .
When they refused to return to their posts, some defected and others stayed in the village.
Under pressure from relatives, commanders decided to withdraw them.
also read
Politicians on Russian State TV: Ukrainian population must “freeze to death and rot”
Poland invites Lavrov – Kremlin rages: “Unprecedented and provocative”
After requests, the comrades were taken to a military base in Valuiki, Russia, says the sister of a soldier.
There they were put under heavy pressure and insulted.
The statements were confirmed by the mother of another soldier, who also has her say.
She speaks of a cellar without furnishings.
Her son is probably still there.
In September, Putin tightened a law that allows long prison sentences for deserters and conscientious objectors.
According to the British secret service, the Russian military is now using blocking units to prevent its own soldiers from retreating – in the worst case by force of arms.
(
mt
)
