Russian soldiers say they were arrested for refusing to fight – Observer

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Russian soldiers say they were arrested by their superiors in eastern Ukraine for refusing to fight in the war. In an interview GuardianIn a self-report from the Luhansk People’s Republic – now controlled by Russian forces – a soldier reveals how he was imprisoned for more than a week because he did not want to continue fighting with the Russian army.

Vladimir – whose name has been changed at his request – said he was arrested on July 19. There were 25 soldiers from his division in a section where food was not available and they also refused to fight. It was one of the first cells in which he was confined. It was later transferred to a school in the city of Bryansk, which had been converted into a military base. According to the soldier, around 80 soldiers are detained there under the same conditions, under the surveillance of army officials Wagner groupA mercenary organization linked to the Kremlin and accused of human rights abuses.

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“The entire time, they did not give us any document explaining the reason for our detention.. We have been detained illegally,” he denounced in a statement to Russian prosecutors, which was accessed by a British newspaper.

At the base, they were fed only once a day, at lunchtime, and had no basic sanitary conditions, Vladimir says. The soldier adds that there are landmines abroad and he was also warned about that Anyone who tried to escape would be “considered an enemy and shot on the spot”..

The soldier was released only when a doctor recommended that he be hospitalized for injuries sustained early in the war. Now, he is demanding a criminal investigation of two Russian commanders and a major, who he says were responsible for his arrest.

To the newspaper, a lawyer who runs a security organization in Moscow revealed that he had List of 70 captured Russian soldiers. According to Maxim Grebenyuk, a total of 140 people were detained.

An investigation Introvert He had already denounced the detention of members of the Russian ranks for refusing to fight. In an article published at the end of July, they named 17 soldiers between the ages of 20 and 26 who were forcibly detained in the village of Krasny Luch, an abandoned colony in Luhansk.