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. Ukraine's leader pledged Friday to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber anniversary of the Russian invasion that upended their lives and Europe's security. Russians across the country rallied against the orderbut police have attempted to disperse anti-war protests as they detained hundreds, including some children. Initially he "believed it was right" despite his dad trying to convince him not to go to war, the BBC report said. Why wasn't it done?". "They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight," the father alleged. Many of the newly mobilised troops were quick to complain that they were being sent to a war zone without sufficient equipment or adequate training. Not only are they clueless, but they're simply refusing to fight, Scherba, who is currently in western Ukraine, tells co-host Molly-Jong-Fast. I have nothing to be ashamed of. The soldier, along with several others who decided not to take part in the fight anymore, put his refusal in writing. Belarus allowed Russia to stage part of the invasion from its . Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. April 16, 2022 17:49 GMT. 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. Soldiers with the 127th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps rioted, according to the operational command. "As an officer he understood that if they went ahead, they wouldn't get out alive. In particular, conscripts are starting to cancel their contracts. Emilio Morenatti. By The Associated Press August 11, 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. Russia has suffered a series of military setbacks in the Ukraine war that triggered criticism of the army's leadership. "I had thought that we were the Russian army, the most super-duper in the world," says the young man bitterly. The range of experience varies. The URL has been copied to your clipboard. Im supposed to be ready for any situation; this war, this special operation, one soldier wrote. Some Russian soldiers and even whole units are "refusing to fight" in Ukraine, top UK security officials reported today. I told him: 'Better to take it. It said that the troops lacked support, while personnel in advanced positions didn't have water. Kononov said he stopped showing up at his unit and, instead, spent time with his friend at his home. There are reports of mobilised Russian troops locked in cellars and basements for refusing to fight in Ukraine. Hundreds were discharged after refusing to take part in the invasion, the Guardian previously reported. "He told me he had refused to lead his men to a certain death," Oxana tells me. It's not a war of liberation.' 2023 BBC. "They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to . Instead, men in uniform arrived and offered them amnesty if they agreed to fight alongside the Russian army in . According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the occupiers are not able to resolve problems with manning their units. They ignore any requests. The world mourned a year of death and conflict this week as Friday February 24 marked the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin's order for his aggressive Russian Armed Forces to invade Ukraine.. 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 . He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help. "Those refusing to fight are doing so because they've had more than their fair share of front line action," explains Elena Popova. 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. News/Politics 2022-12-22T11:35:49.577Z. He believes his commanders had planned to capture strongholds and key cities very quickly - and had calculated that the Ukrainians would simply surrender. There are no legal grounds to start a criminal case if a soldier refuses to fight while on Russian territory.. Without a formal . Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world. They forgot their military oaths, the ceremonial promise, their vows of duty to their Fatherland, the board reads. "You've got relatives there. Missing In Action: A Russian Soldier's Mother Desperately Seeks Answers, Vox Pop: Muscovites On How Russia's Isolation Affects Daily Life. In July, for example, 17 Russian soldiers were reportedly detained in the country's eastern Luhansk region after they said they would not continue fighting in the war and tried to end their short-term contracts. Why Russian Soldiers Are Refusing To Fight In The War On 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. 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. Other units include troops from private military companies like Vagner, or specialized, semiautonomous units overseen by Chechnyas strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov. Putin's army continues its full-scale aggression in Ukraine. I'm shocked by our army. But after a certain adaptation period, our men fight brilliantly.". Never mind the myriad reports of Russian troops refusing to fight by the thousands, sabotaging their own shoddy equipment and even deliberately wounding themselves to abandon the war, Russian . 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. This is not our war. They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. 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. Soldiers like Sergey - reluctant to return to the front line - are not unusual, according to Ruslan Leviev, the editor of Conflict Intelligence Team, a media project investigating the experiences of the Russian military in Ukraine through confidential interviews and open source material. A Russian serviceman takes part in military exercises outside the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian Far East on September 4. About 140 Russian soldiers have reportedly been jailed so far. By Robert Coalson. Three days of duty? He refused so they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. A Russian court sentenced a 24-year-old professional soldier to five years in prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, officials have said. These people are ready for anything. The Insider. Russia has also turned to mercenaries to bolster its war efforts, deploying fighters from the shadowy Kremlin-linked Wagner group. "We were like blind kittens. A stamp that was purportedly placed in the military-service booklet of one soldier who refused to serve in Ukraine. 'I Had To Refuse So I Could Stay Alive' A month later - 24 February, the day Russia launched its invasion - he was told to cross the border. ", "We do not have any problems with soldiers leaving combat positions," the Kremlin leader continued. He gets it now. But then someone said they'd take my son to work in the storeroom. Such an action would be "premature" without having assessed the harm to the military service he was involved in, the prosecutor said. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories . CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports on the conflict in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin boasts of success, though some of his soldiers refuse to fight. Russian authorities quietly stepped up their efforts to recruit new soldiers as it became clear that a quick victory in Ukraine was unattainable. "I can see that the war continues, it is not going away," he told the BBC. During wartime, rules are totally different. 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. I told him: 'Better to take it. Sergei and Stas are not the real names of this father and son. The young Russian was among those men who enlisted. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.". 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. 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. It soon became clear that not everyone was onboard with it. But he stresses that Russian military law does include clauses which allow soldiers to refuse to fight if they don't want to. But there's a more common explanation. But you have until 6 p.m. today. Sergei made several trips to the front line to try to secure his son's release. Youre just a soldier for them; youre nobody.. The whole time, not a single document was provided that would explain our arrest. Stas, an army officer, had written a letter to the . My daughter was born three months ago. The troops are getting exhausted they wont be able to keep this up for a long period.. - Ukraine's President . DeSantis won't say he's running. His unit moved on through the Ukrainian countryside, but there was a clear lack of strategy, he says. Read about our approach to external linking. The contract soldier was subsequently sentenced on July 21 to restriction in military service for one year, with a 10 percent deduction from his monetary allowance going to the state. Sergey's complaints about lack of equipment have also emerged in phone conversations alleged to be between Russian soldiers and their families, intercepted and posted online by the Ukrainian security services. 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. It wouldn't cost much to equip us. Sergey is just one of hundreds of Russian soldiers understood to have been seeking such advice. "We do not have any camps or incarceration facilities, or the like [for Russian soldiers]," President Putin insisted earlier this month. We drove around it and on, firing as we went. The man narrated the ordeal his son suffered to the BBC, saying that he had begged his son not to go. 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. Dmitris refusal to fight highlights some of the military difficulties the Russian army has faced as a result of the Kremlins political decision not to formally declare war on Ukraine preferring instead to describe the invasion, which will soon reach its fourth month, as a special military operation. Independent Russian media have also been reporting hundreds of cases of soldiers refusing repeat deployments to Ukraine since the beginning of April. A Russian soldier has been sentenced for refusing to fight in the war in Ukraine. He's changed completely. 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. 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. 2023 Cable News Network. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Nearly all . 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. Russian resistance is growing against Putin's war. On 15 February, Ukraines Defence Intelligence reported that Russias losses were the largest since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He told me his face was covered in blood," the father said while speaking to the outlet. Some troops are refusing orders, walking away from military bases or crossing the border into Ukraine and switching sides, media reports show. This is not our war. Sergey joined the army as a conscript - most Russian men between the ages of 18-27 must complete one year of compulsory military service. Russias troops in Ukraine are largely made up of contract soldiers: volunteer personnel who sign fixed-term contracts for service. Ukraine's Operational Command South reported in a . The Russian authorities dismiss reports of disillusioned soldiers and detention centres as fake news. But significant damage has been done to that army, which has confronted logistical problems, poor morale and an underestimated Ukrainian resistance. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook. More than 100 Russian national guardsmen have been fired for refusing to fight in Ukraine, court documents show, in what looks to be the clearest indication yet of dissent among some parts of . "I think that [so many of] our guys died largely because of this. The unit, stationed in Russias far east during peacetime, first entered Ukraine from Belarus when the war started at the end of February and saw bitter combat with Ukrainian forces. Law enforcement located the man, Marsel Kandarov, in September, the statement added. The enemy has somewhat reduced its activity for the fourth day, he said. The Russian defense ministry didnt respond to the Guardians request for comment. Read also: UK intelligence estimates Russian losses near Vuhledar. Im tired. But analysts say voluntary recruits and mercenary groups are unlikely to lead to a substantial increase in the number of new soldiers, compared with the numbers that a partial or a full-scale mobilisation would bring. 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. 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