Nearly all . 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. Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric', The people who want you to believe the Ukraine war is fake. He shares that soldiers in Crimea refused to be . Were bringing the voice of Ukraine to the world. ", "My first thoughts were 'Is this really happening to me?'". Just refuse," Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. Missing In Action: A Russian Soldier's Mother Desperately Seeks Answers, Vox Pop: Muscovites On How Russia's Isolation Affects Daily Life. All asked that their names be withheld for fear of further punishment or retaliation by commanders. 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. It is, first of all, a classic example of military aggression; it is a war without a just cause. We had no food, no water, he said. Some troops are refusing orders, walking away from military bases or crossing the border into Ukraine and switching sides, media reports show. "You've got relatives there. We've received your submission. "We rushed forward with short overnight stays, without trenches, without reconnaissance. Putin's army continues its full-scale aggression in Ukraine. It wouldn't cost much to equip us. 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 . This is one of many reported incidents where Russian soldiers have been accused of refusing to take up arms in Ukraine. "I had thought that we were the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world," says the young man bitterly. The code has been copied to your clipboard. Hes not refusing to carry out orders, so the article on insubordination or disobeying orders isnt relevant either, because hes not refusing to do so, he said. The way my son was treated wasn't only illegal, it was inhuman.". (Reuters Photo) Russian soldiers fighting the war in Ukraine are in disarray and crying as they are asked to "fire at . 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. There was no basic hygiene, the soldier said in the testimony, according to the Guardian. We've changed them to protect their identities. A Russian soldier has been sentenced for refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. At the beginning of April, Sergey was sent back over the border to a camp on the Russian side. Reports from Russia said authorities would call up 300,000 people with "relevant" skills or military experience. Video, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story, Ed Sheeran says wife developed tumour in pregnancy, Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' as trains crashed, Bieber cancels remaining Justice world tour dates, Daily walk prevents one in 10 early deaths - study, Trump lashes out at Murdoch over vote fraud case, Uranium particles enriched to 83.7% found in Iran, Why the lab-leak theory is being taken seriously, Finland starts construction of Russia border fence. 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. In October, a new general was appointed to lead Russia's offensive. A video of the incident that circulated online showed the soldier complaining of poor training, using obscenities, and calling the drills an imitation. News/Politics 2022-12-22T11:35:49.577Z. Youre just a soldier for them; youre nobody.. When the soldiers of an elite Russian army brigade were told in early April to prepare for a second deployment to Ukraine, fear broke out among the ranks. But they eventually calmed down because there wasnt much they could do, he said. The airline carrier Wizz Air has announced it will . Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine. Russian state media aired footage of blitzed buildings and abandoned streets in Bakhmut , the eastern city where Ukrainian forces have been . The soldier is in the unit, hes not running away anywhere. 'You're Nobody' Separately, a military tribunal in Moscow sentenced a soldier to five years and six months in a penal colony for beating an officer during an argument, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday. He refused. Produced by Will Vernon. The bosses response was: We dont care about your problems, go ahead and quit. Timofei Rozhanskiy is a correspondent in Kyiv for Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. The soldiers testimony said war-weary soldiers were urged by superiors to return to the fight. What's he waiting for? Many soldiers, therefore, have chosen to be fired or transferred rather than going into the meat grinder, he said. 03:25. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories . A court in the Russian city of Ufa has sentenced a 24-year-old corporal to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine. Born in Russia, he graduated from St. Petersburg State University and also received film and video production training at Bard College in New York. He said he himself had written some 20 complaints and demands for reassignment, but his superior officers had rejected them -- or even tore the papers up completely. "I don't want to go [back to Ukraine] to kill and be killed," says Sergey - not his real name - who spent five weeks fighting in Ukraine earlier this year. 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. Hundreds of Russian soldiers have refused to fight or fled their posts since the war in Ukraine began, according to report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. In phone conversations with Current Time, he said troops were not granted any leave for 4 1/2 months, even as the losses and casualties for the brigade mounted: Up to half of the brigades personnel -- around 1,000 -- have been either killed or wounded in action, he said. Ukrainians have been asked to avoid going near windows or on balconies and be . Its members have been deployed in the Donetsk area and are supposed to take control of the defense line until March 5, he added. By Robert Coalson. Later that month he received an order to return to Ukraine - but told his commander that he was not prepared to go. Read about our approach to external linking. 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. Stas was sent back to Russia. 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 . 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. "We were like blind kittens. Troops had been withdrawn from northern Ukraine and appeared to be regrouping for an assault in the east. The soldier was a serving officer in the Russian army when Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. ", "We do not have any problems with soldiers leaving combat positions," the Kremlin leader continued. Ukrainian soldiers move on the road in the freed territory in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. It's not a war of liberation.' ET Saturday: A curfew in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has been extended from 5 pm until 8 am every day At least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been . It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. The range of experience varies. Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. "But he said he was going. Refusal then would mean much harsher penalties. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. A Russian soldier who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine, he was beaten until his face was covered in blood, his father has claimed. 2023 BBC. In his conversations with Current Time, Kaminsky lamented what he described as commanders callous disregard for the wellbeing of their troops. I told him that he was a zombie. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. He told me his face was covered in blood. It's absurd. There is absolutely no trust in the authorities and the higher command, from the very first word, Kaminsky, 20, told Current Time in a phone interview on July 17, recorded from an undisclosed location in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine. The man narrated the ordeal his son suffered to the BBC, saying that he had begged his son not to go. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. The soldier was a serving officer in the Russian army when Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. 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. If we had moved gradually, if we had checked the roads for mines many losses could have been avoided.". "Then they took him into a room and told him: 'You're coming with us, otherwise we'll kill you.' I signed a contract. 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. 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 . As casualties have mounted, so have Ukrainian officials' efforts to appeal directly to the Russian people, saying they are being lied to about a war Moscow still calls a "special operation . "They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight," the father alleged. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.". Read about our approach to external linking. 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. For that they sent my son to a detention centre. They ignore any requests. 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. Newsweek was unable to independently verify those claims but reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment. They don't care about the life of a soldier; whats more important is his position and rank, Kaminsky said. The URL has been copied to your clipboard. They haven't been seen for five months. He had helped oversee fighting in eastern Ukraine. VLADIMIR Putin's demoralised and disillusioned troops are fleeing the war in Ukraine and surrendering without a fight, reports claim. So, they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. As Russia's forces run out of food and fuel, some h Separately, a military tribunal said it sentenced Kandarov to five years behind bars for evading military service during mobilisation for more than a month. Command post guard duty? Kaminsky said discontent had been building in the unit for weeks, if not months. 2023 Cable News Network. By The Associated Press August 11, 2022. In the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, on the home base for the 205th Cossack Motorized Rifle Brigade, commanders have erected a wall of shame with the names, ranks, and photographs of some 300 soldiers who have disobeyed orders in the Ukraine war. A Russian soldier has been sentenced for refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. A Russian soldier who refused to fight in the war in Ukraine was allegedly beaten and locked up by his own comrades, according to a report. Finance chiefs at a Group of 20 conference in India this weekend issued a joint statement condemning Moscow for its war in Ukraine, with only China and Russia declining to sign. We were illegally jailed.. Each of our interviewees had dealt with dozens of cases and believed those soldiers were also sharing advice with their colleagues. "He said it was my choice. The Russian authorities dismiss reports of disillusioned soldiers and detention centres as fake news. Im tired. I will serve my remaining time and then I am out of here, he said. 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. Sergei and Stas are not the real names of this father and son. President Vladimir Putin promised that only professional soldiers would take part in his "special military operation.". For many Russian soldiers, the war in Ukraine is one they don't want to fight. Andrei, a Russian lieutenant, stopped fighting. ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 27, 2023 / 13:45 pm (CNA). 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 . I have nothing to be ashamed of. Troops are saying no to officers, knowing that punishment is light while Russia is not technically at war. 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. By early July, Kaminsky said, he'd had enough: He refused to fight, one of 78 soldiers from his brigade who have refused orders. TASS said the soldier expressed his dissatisfaction with the training of mobilised servicemen outside Moscow. The soldier, along with several others who decided not to take part in the fight anymore, put his refusal in writing. A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials have said. We were fed once a day at lunchtime. A Russian serviceman takes part in military exercises outside the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian Far East on September 4. Not from the opposing side. The life of a soldier for them ; youre nobody switching sides media... 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