Former Russian soldiers have reported seeing comrades being killed on site for refusing to return to combat. One of them claimed to have witnessed a commander executing four men at close range, while another described finding around 20 bodies of soldiers who were killed by their own comrades, a practice known in Russian military jargon as “zeroing,” or eliminating their own men.
The reports describe still a collapse of discipline and chain of command, with extreme punishments applied to soldiers who refused to participate in what were considered suicide attacks, known among the troops as “meat storms,” in which successive waves of men are sent to the front lines to exhaust Ukrainian forces.
One of the soldiers recounted that after refusing to go to the front line, he was tortured, beaten, deprived of food, and humiliated, and subsequently attempted suicide. Others reported electric shocks, beatings, and the systematic use of violence as a means of intimidation.
Another military officer stated that his commander, who was subsequently awarded the title of “Hero of Russia,” ordered the executions of soldiers from his own unit. Families of deceased soldiers have already reported alleged abuses committed by this officer, accusing him of being responsible for high human casualties.
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The four men are currently outside Russia and claim to be in hiding. All of them describe deep psychological trauma caused by the war and the internal practices of the Russian army, saying that many soldiers do not support the conflict or military leadership.
The Russian government stated in response to the BBC that its armed forces “act with the maximum restraint possible” and that all allegations of crimes are investigated, adding that it is not possible to independently verify the reports presented.
According to the UK Ministry of Defense, more than 1.2 million Russian troopswill have been killedMore than 100,000 civilians have been killed or injured since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The testimonies reinforce previous allegations of abuses and massive losses in Russian forces, in a context where almost all public opposition to the war launched by President Vladimir Putin has been silenced within Russia.
