He refused. And that means he cant be prosecuted for desertion or going AWOL. Newsweek was unable to independently verify those claims but reached out to Russia's foreign ministry for comment. 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. "The wall of misunderstanding between us has gone. I understood that I had to refuse so I could stay alive, he said. 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. By Timofei Rozhanskiy. Missing In Action: A Russian Soldier's Mother Desperately Seeks Answers, Vox Pop: Muscovites On How Russia's Isolation Affects Daily Life. All his bravado has gone. 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. The NY Times published a story on this topic today titled "Russia's New Offensive Sends Conscripts Into the Teeth of Ukraine's Lines." "Every day, sometimes more than once a day, small groups come forward and try to take our positions," said one of the Ukrainian soldiers who participated in the fight, and who asked to be identified only by his nickname, Diesel, for security reasons. July 19, 2022. 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. The Russian defense ministry didnt respond to the Guardians request for comment. "It was blown up from a grenade launcher or something else. Heavy street fighting against Russian troops was underway in Kyiv as officials urged locals to take immediate shelter. Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. The attack is doubly unjust. Brigade commanders ask who wants to guard the second gunners unit. The enemy has somewhat reduced its activity for the fourth day, he said. According to the head of his military commandant's office, Kononov was found at his place of residence with a friend after a search. DeSantis won't say he's running. A senior US defense official said Russian volunteers are refusing to go into . April 7, 2022. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. "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. 17 Russian soldiers were reportedly detained, Russian military unit deployed in the south would not figh, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. 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. But the soldier later discussed with his father what would happen if he refused to fight. Russias troops in Ukraine are largely made up of contract soldiers: volunteer personnel who sign fixed-term contracts for service. 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 . There are reports of mobilised Russian troops locked in cellars and basements for refusing to fight in Ukraine. 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. They don't care about the life of a soldier; whats more important is his position and rank, Kaminsky said. Russians might be in favour of the conflict, but they dont actually want to fight, he said, adding that a general mobilisation would entail colossal losses of untrained soldiers. According to an audio recording shared with Current Time, commanders met with the insubordinate soldiers on July 17, alternately threatening, begging, and trying to coerce them to remain in service or rescind their resignation requests. Fewer and fewer Russian servicemen want to fight for the Kremlin's invading plans. 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. The soldiers testimony said war-weary soldiers were urged by superiors to return to the fight. The Insider. Russia announced the mobilisation of 300,000 men in late September after suffering battlefield defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces. Artillery sentry duty? Soldiers are refusing to fire artillery on civilians until they clear the area. Russian . Servicemen fire a 120mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Ukraine. But his stand changed after the soldier found out he had been sent to fight with "no intelligence gathering, no preparation and no cover". He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help. In his conversations with Current Time, Kaminsky lamented what he described as commanders callous disregard for the wellbeing of their troops. He was soon transferred to Belgorod, a Russian city close to the border with Ukraine, where he has been stationed since. We didn't leave anyone in the rear, so if someone decided to come in from behind and hit us there was no protection. There are no legal grounds to start a criminal case if a soldier refuses to fight while on Russian territory.. In all, 78 soldiers including Kaminsky openly challenged his orders, and demanded to be either sent home or reassigned, he said. Soldiers from Ukraines Special Operations Forces and the 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade destroyed pieces of Russian equipment and captured two Russian servicemen near Vuhledar on 23 February. 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. War-weary Russian soldiers have been thrown in jail by their commanders after they refused to fight in Ukraine over the invasions total disregard for human life, a new report claims. 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. It said that the troops lacked support, while personnel in advanced positions didn't have water. The announcement triggered an exodus of men from Russia, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries including Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. ", Stas was a serving officer when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. I dont regret it one bit. People in Kyiv are being warned of street fighting and "subversive groups" on the third day of the Russian invasion, with reports of 198 Ukrainians dead nationwide since troops first crossed the . At some point, Kaminsky's unit was then transferred to Luhansk, in Ukraines Donbas region. 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 . I signed a contract. Troops had been withdrawn from northern Ukraine and appeared to be regrouping for an assault in the east. I still havent seen her. And there is no guarantee that more prosecutions might not emerge in the future. Boris Johnson's cabinet received an update from a senior national security official on Tuesday morning. Jan 27, 2023. Reinforcements failed to arrive and soldiers were poorly equipped for the task of taking a large city. Because there are no criminal articles for requesting the termination of a contract based on anti-war beliefs, Krivenko told Current Time. As Russia's forces run out of food and fuel, some h Some Russian soldiers and even whole units are "refusing to fight" in Ukraine, top UK security officials reported today. 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.". 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. 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. 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. Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova said all of the Ukrainian defenders on Snake Island were killed in an exchange with a Russian warship after they refused to surrender. Along with eight others, Dmitri told his commanders that he refused to rejoin the invasion. It is, first of all, a classic example of military aggression; it is a war without a just cause. 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. A Russian soldier who refused to continue fighting in Ukraine, he was beaten until his face was . Under Russian military rules, troops who refuse to fight in Ukraine can face dismissal but cannot be prosecuted, said Mikhail Benyash, a lawyer who has been advising soldiers who choose that option. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.". He told me his face was covered in blood. In his unit of 50 people, 10 were killed and 10 others wounded. But by September that had all changed. A group of desperate Russian soldiers have issued an open letter by way of video to despotic President Vladimir Putin. ", "We do not have any problems with soldiers leaving combat positions," the Kremlin leader continued. This story has been shared 102,045 times. His unit moved on through the Ukrainian countryside, but there was a clear lack of strategy, he says. 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