- Ukraine said the cold snap and dire conditions prompted surrender and desertions
An entire Russian army platoon fled frontline trenches and tried to escape to Crimea, while commanders threatened to execute deserters, Ukraine claims.
Oleksandr Shtupun, the spokesman for the Tavria Grouping of Troops, said “nearly 40 invaders” had “recently” tried to escape to the peninsula, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
‘I’m talking about an entire platoon of the Russian army. There were reports that they were being hunted in an attempt to bring them back,” he told Espreso TV, adding that the deserters were armed.
The military spokesman also reportedly said that a recent cold snap and unsanitary conditions prompted another 30 Russian soldiers to surrender within four days.
It comes at a time when desertions have increased among Russia’s ranks as the war in Ukraine nears the two-year mark, with dire conditions and high casualties fueling discontent in Putin’s military.
Russian conscripts pictured at a train station in Sevastopol before leaving to serve in the war, Crimea, November 2022
Shtupun said conscripts who lack battlefield training and experience are threatened by commanders with physical violence, including execution, if they refuse to fight.
“This is how they incentivize invaders to carry out attack missions,” he said.
‘They put pressure on them both mentally and physically. The newly mobilized soldiers, who have just been deployed, have not yet seen the horrors and do not understand what is going on.
“That’s why those who have already been on offensive missions and somehow survived refuse to undertake another offensive because they are terrified of going there again.”
Last month, a charity said it had received more than a thousand requests from Russian soldiers since April to help them avoid the fighting.
“A year has passed since the start of the mobilization. If some people still hoped that they could go home after a certain period of service, now such illusions no longer exist,” says Sergei Krivenko, director of the “Citizen”. Army. This is what the human rights group of Rights says The Moscow Times.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine take part in tank exercises in the Zaporizhia region, January 11, 2024
Ukrainian soldiers of the 128th Transcarpathian Separate Mountain Assault Brigade take part in tank exercises in the Zaporizhia region, January 11, 2024
“Soldiers see that there is no rotation, that even seriously injured men are sent back to the front after being admitted to hospital,” he added.
The lack of training has left Russia’s armed forces vulnerable and fueled anger among Putin’s forces. In a video shared in November, dozens are seen complaining about a lack of experience with weapons before being sent to the front.
Russia’s most significant effort to expand its manpower came with its full mobilization over a year ago, enlisting some 300,000 reservists.
As the war rages on, Putin’s forces are seeing more and more casualties on the battlefield. Britain warned last month that the number of casualties will exceed half a million by 2025 if fighting continues at its current pace.
The average daily number of wounded or dead Russian troops rose by almost 300 per day over the course of 2023 compared to 2022, according to Britain’s Defense Intelligence Agency.