As of: February 26, 2024, 9:26 p.m
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
Comments
Press
Split
Russian soldiers are said to have been subjected to mutual abuse at the front in the Ukraine war.
This is suggested by new reports and videos.
Kiev - Russian soldiers stationed in Ukraine are said to be subjected to severe abuse at the front.
The Russian-language independent news portal
Virstka
has been collecting reports from Russian officers stationed near the hotly contested Kherson region over the past three months.
According to this, verbal harassment, but also violence and sexual abuse, have increased significantly since the beginning of the war.
The reason for the mistreatment on the Russian side is growing frustration among the soldiers.
Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are engaged in intense fighting over the region in southern Ukraine, meaning that many Russian soldiers hardly get any time off from the front.
According to the Virstka sources, around sixty to 100 people from both sides would be killed every day.
In particular, prisoners recruited from Russia, who are promised freedom in return for the war, would vent their anger and despair on colleagues as a result.
However, the reports cannot be definitively verified.
Former Russian prisoners on the war front - Shocking report on abuses in the Ukrainian war
“The shelling of our positions is still continuous.
During this time our [former;
Note d.
Red.] Prisoners completely lost their heads,” a soldier reported to the news portal.
“They know they are all going to die.
That's why they torture the common people." Since the responsible commanders often withdraw from the front and sit "in the rear," the soldiers at the front are not subject to direct supervision.
The result: your own rules.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
© IMAGO/Stanislav Krasilnikov
A Russian soldier and his comrade reportedly sent a video of forces from the 345th Regiment to a Virstka correspondent.
The video can also be seen on the news platform X, the faces are unrecognizable.
In the almost 40-second excerpt, four naked men stand in the dark in front of some soldiers in green military jackets.
Russian soldiers report violent crimes and “punishments” in their own ranks
Some of the soldiers film the men with their cell phones, as can be seen in the video.
One of them punches a naked man in the face.
They also speak in Russian.
Virstka
translates the spoken content with requests that the men climb into a pit in the ground.
They are also likely to be asked to perform sexual acts on each other while others watch.
“This is how they unofficially punish those who drink or take drugs while on duty,” a soldier explains to the news portal.
The authenticity of the video cannot be confirmed.
The editors are said to have received it from a soldier named Mikhail Maltsev, a former prisoner from Novosibirsk.
He was pardoned by the Defense Ministry for his actions in the Ukraine War.
“In Luhansk I already knew what awaited me, but I didn't dare to escape.
Then we were moved towards Kherson, where the hardest drudgery began.
The attitude is beastly.
Orders that cannot be fulfilled, everyone mocks the other,” Maltsev is quoted as saying.
Soldiers are humiliated, tied up and starved - that's how brutal it is supposed to be on the Russian front
Those who refuse to fight are also apparently severely punished.
Russian soldier Semyon Kiskorov told
Virstka
that he and his brother refused to take part in an attack in November 2023.
They were then tied to a tree for days without eating or drinking.
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To date, there has been little public information about violence and abuse within our own ranks.
The military is mainly accused of war crimes against the Ukrainian population and against captured soldiers.
According to its own information, Ukraine has recorded more than 120,000 war crimes committed by the enemy in the past two years of war.
“There is no crime that the Russians did not commit during this war,” said Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin on Sunday (February 25) at the Forum
Ukraine.
Year 2024
in front of journalists in Kiev.
In the past , the human rights organization
Human Rights Watch
has also called on Ukraine to initiate investigations into possible war crimes against Russian prisoners.
(nz)