Army commanders try to intimidate contract soldiers into staying with their units, according to Russian human rights lawyer Alexei Tabalov. Stas, an army officer, had written a letter to the . 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. 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. 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. We've changed them to protect their identities. The attack is doubly unjust. The soldier was a serving officer in the Russian army when Mr Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 23. Such an action would be "premature" without having assessed the harm to the military service he was involved in, the prosecutor said. 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. Sergei made several trips to the front line to try to secure his son's release. A Warner Bros. 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 . A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an imitation. They'd been ordered to advance, but no one knew what lay ahead. In January, Sergey was sent near the border with Ukraine for what he was told would be military drills. Earlier Ukraines General Staff reported that invading Russian forces were seeing mass desertion among its troops amid Ukrainian military successes. Sergei has invited us to his home to tell us their story. Not from the opposing side. In . 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. Russian troops release video as they say they will not fight. He simply declares that he has anti-war convictions. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to . The beach, just north of Odessa in southern Ukraine, was defended with mines and anti-tank hedgehogs. The BBC has been speaking to one such soldier. 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.". We arent officially in a state of war, so they could not force me to go.. ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 27, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA). The URL has been copied to your clipboard. The private then pushed the officer in the chest. And while the current status of the conflict gives Russian soldiers a legal path to refuse participation, some soldiers have complained that it has also led to them not being adequately cared for. And this, according to a video on social media app Telegram, has . A Russian fleet was said to be preparing to shell port city Odessa and land troops. "It's a way of making people go back into that bloodbath," says Elena Popova from Russia's Movement of Conscientious Objectors. "He said it was my choice. My contract ends in June. Putin's army continues its full-scale aggression in Ukraine. But you cannot force people to fight.". All his bravado has gone. Ilya Kononov, a contract soldier from the city of Pskov in western Russia, was charged with "unauthorized . 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.". His unit moved on through the Ukrainian countryside, but there was a clear lack of strategy, he says. DeSantis won't say he's running. I still havent seen her. 'I'm Warning You, This Is A Final Offer' (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) A U.S. Army veteran from Wisconsin died on Feb. 16 while fighting on the . Mr. Putin had resisted ordering a mobilization for months, but his decision underscored the Kremlin's struggles on the battlefield, where more than 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or . It's not a war of liberation.' Initially he "believed it was right" despite his dad trying to convince him not to go to war, the BBC report said. By early July, Kaminsky said, he'd had enough: He refused to fight, one of 78 soldiers from his brigade who have refused orders. A similar account to Dmitris was given to the BBCs Russian service by Sergey Bokov, a 23-year-old soldier who at the end of April decided to leave the army after fighting in Ukraine. 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. Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years behind bars for evading military service during mobilisation for more than a month. Troops are saying no to officers, knowing that punishment is light while Russia is not technically at war. 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. The whole time, not a single document was provided that would explain our arrest. Commanders try to threaten their soldiers with prison time if they dissent, but we tell the soldiers that they can simply say no, Benyash said, adding that he was not aware of any criminal cases against soldiers who refused to fight. He refused so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. "Then they took him into a room and told him: 'You're coming with us, otherwise we'll kill you.' A Russian court has sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials said Thursday. 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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. Almost immediately his unit found itself under attack. Second, the conduct of the war by Russian forces violates the most . 03:25. 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. 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. Russian forces were driven out of much of the northeastern Kharkiv region in early September by a Ukrainian counter-offensive that allowed Kyiv to retake thousands of square kilometres of territory. 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. He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help. The men, who belonged to the key headquarters of the Pskov . Newsweek was unable to independently verify those claims but reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment. The soldier was a serving officer in the Russian army when Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Just refuse," Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. It is unfair, I am fighting in this war just as the others in Ukraine, risking my life, the soldier said. R ussian troops have destroyed a concrete dam built in Ukraine's Kherson Region in 2014 to cut off water to Crimea, the RIA news agency quoted the governor of Russian-annexed Crimea Sergei . He refused. The bosses response was: We dont care about your problems, go ahead and quit. 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Another soldier from the 205th Brigade also said commanders gave no preparation to soldiers before the war, and when the units deployed, they were told they were going on exercises. I signed a contract. Servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Ukraine. "I'm morally exhausted. Pointing to Russias military laws, Benyash said it would be more difficult for soldiers to refuse to fight if Russia were to declare a full-scale war. Why wasn't it done?". 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. He believes his commanders had planned to capture strongholds and key cities very quickly - and had calculated that the Ukrainians would simply surrender. It caught fire and there were [Russian] soldiers inside. Russian forces have significantly reduced activity in the Vuhledar area due to the mass refusal of their troops to go on the offensive, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Tavriiskyi District forces, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, said on Feb. 27. . "We rushed forward with short overnight stays, without trenches, without reconnaissance. Source: cnnespanol All news articles on 2023-02-28 You may like. "I think that [so many of] our guys died largely because of this. But you have until 6 p.m. today. 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. "We went without helicopters - just in a column, as though we were heading to a parade.". He says his convoy - travelling through northern Ukraine - broke up after just four days when a bridge they were about to cross exploded, killing comrades ahead of them. Putin needs to make a decision regarding mobilisation in the coming weeks, said Rob Lee, a military analyst. It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. But after a certain adaptation period, our men fight brilliantly.". I will serve my remaining time and then I am out of here, he said. Ukrainian soldiers move on the road in the freed territory in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. 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. Many of the units that are supposed to train conscripts are fighting themselves, Lee said. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Dmitri's refusal to fight in the war is the latest in a string of reports of Russian soldiers disobeying orders to join the fight. About 140 Russian soldiers have reportedly been jailed so far. Brigade has suffered "extremely high casualties" while fighting in Ukraine. 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. They began to stir and offer up some alternatives when people started specifically saying no, he said. 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. Soldiers with the 127th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps rioted, according to the operational command. Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in . But I was thinking, Im still young; at any moment, a piece of shrapnel, a bullet could fly into my head. - Ukraine's President . They were continually shelled, he says, both when moving and when parked overnight. The Russian defense ministry didnt respond to the Guardians request for comment. Russian rights activists say hundreds, possibly thousands of troops are balking at orders to deploy, to keep fighting, or to remain on the battlefield without rotating out or home. This is not our war. Updated at 1:10 p.m. on April 14 to add that the soldier's lawyer has taken down the original photo of the service card. 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. Members of Wagner told the captive soldiers that mines surrounded the military base where they were being held and threatened to shoot anyone trying to escape, the soldier wrote. But they eventually calmed down because there wasnt much they could do, he said. Before joining Current Times Moscow bureau in 2019, Rozhanskiy worked for the independent Russian television channel TV Rain. 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. 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. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.". Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. Youre just a soldier for them; youre nobody.. 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. Also, according to Dmytrashkivskyi, the 136th Brigade, which was formed for the war in Chechnya, has arrived in the Vuhledar area. July 20, 2022 16:08 GMT. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. The way my son was treated wasn't only illegal, it was inhuman.". The code has been copied to your clipboard. Three days of duty? Kaminsky said discontent had been building in the unit for weeks, if not months. CNN in Russia 10 videos. July 19, 2022. But significant damage has been done to that army, which has confronted logistical problems, poor morale and an underestimated Ukrainian resistance. The latest as of 7.15 a.m. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports on the conflictin Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin touts success, yet some ofhis soldiers refuse to fight. 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. A Russian court sentenced Marsel Kandarov to five years in prison for refusing to take part in the special military operation. 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. Id rather bury you on the front line, on the line of defense, than give up my position, he said, describing the sentiments of his commanders. The Insider. What is being given to Ukraine by the UK? A Russian soldier's service card was stamped "traitor" for refusing . The refusenik troops add to Russian commanders headaches as they struggle to replenish spent and exhausted units across the roughly 480-kilometer (300-mile) front line stretching from east of Kharkiv in the northeast down to Kherson in south-central Ukraine. The announcement triggered an exodus of men from Russia, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries including Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. 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. Some Russian soldiers and even whole units are "refusing to fight" in Ukraine, top UK security officials reported today. Russian troops also lost territory in the southern Kherson region as well as the Lyman transport hub in eastern Ukraine. They were furious. Missing In Action: A Russian Soldier's Mother Desperately Seeks Answers, Vox Pop: Muscovites On How Russia's Isolation Affects Daily Life. He shares that soldiers in Crimea refused to be . I understand everything, of course. The Insider. Russia has also turned to mercenaries to bolster its war efforts, deploying fighters from the shadowy Kremlin-linked Wagner group. Kononov said he stopped showing up at his unit and, instead, spent time with his friend at his home. Source: Latvia-based Russian media outlet Meduza; united press office of the courts of the Republic of Bashkortostan on Telegram Details: According to court materials, Corporal Marcel Kandarov has been charged with evading military service for more than one month . A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials have said. 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. 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. 2023 BBC. As Russia has faced a surprisingly effective resistance from Ukraine, there have been reports of low soldier morale and chaos among the commanding ranks. He gets it now. Fewer and fewer Russian servicemen want to fight for the Kremlin's invading plans. I dont regret it one bit. Nearly all . Sergey is just one of hundreds of Russian soldiers understood to have been seeking such advice. Russias troops in Ukraine are largely made up of contract soldiers: volunteer personnel who sign fixed-term contracts for service. . The soldier said he broke his contract and resigned from the brigade before the February 24 invasion, once he realized it was in fact going forward. While the exact number of soldiers refusing to fight remains unclear, such stories illustrate what military experts and western governments say is one of Russias biggest obstacles in Ukraine: a severe shortage of infantry soldiers. 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. A video showing two Russian soldiers being arrested after they refused to follow orders to fight in Ukraine has circulated on social media platform Telegram. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories . Frank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron! Alexander Avilov / Moskva News Agency. One year from the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, a Catholic priest recounted how a Ukrainian soldier was spared from being killed by . Sergey joined the army as a conscript - most Russian men between the ages of 18-27 must complete one year of compulsory military service. They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. Russian troops release video as they say they will not fight. Instead they were expected to operate without even basic equipment, such as night vision devices, he says. "It was a difficult decision for him to take. Sergey says he is traumatised by his experience in Ukraine. "As an officer he understood that if they went ahead, they wouldn't get out alive. A senior US defense official said Russian volunteers are refusing to go into . He told me his face was covered in blood. "We were like blind kittens. Discovery Company. So, they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. "We do not have any camps or incarceration facilities, or the like [for Russian soldiers]," President Putin insisted earlier this month. ET. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, When disinfo specialists lie, Gray Ladys DeSantis frustration and other commentary, Putins former spin doctor-turned-critic dead, Ukraines northeastern front could decide new battle lines, Biden needs to step up military aid for Ukraine fast. Reports from Russia said authorities would call up 300,000 people with "relevant" skills or military experience. What's he waiting for? Emilio Morenatti. A month later - 24 February, the day Russia launched its invasion - he was told to cross the border. Independent Russian media have also been reporting hundreds of cases of soldiers refusing repeat deployments to Ukraine since the beginning of April. Support us with a one-time donation, or become a Patron! The range of experience varies. 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. I told him: 'Better to take it. I want to return to my family and not in a casket.. 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. He said he would put his refusal in writing. And that, unfortunately, life would prove that.". Russia launched the attack on Ukraine from three sides on February 24. Many Russian soldiers would rather be dismissed or transferred than fight in Ukraine. "I had thought that we were the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world," says the young man bitterly. Stas told his father about one particular battle. By Timofei Rozhanskiy. 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