Mass rejection. The military of the Russian Federation does not want to fight
Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there have been constant reports of Russian military personnel from various regions refusing to go to war.
For all two months of the war, Russia is constantly experiencing problems with personnel. Even conscripts have to be sent to war, or mercenaries must be collected from poor African countries. Since the beginning of the aggression, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, more than 21,000 Russian soldiers have already died. This, of course, also does not add enthusiasm and desire to go to Ukraine for the Russian military. The military command of the aggressor country is trying to carry out covert mobilization, luring soldiers into contracts, but the military still refuses to fight en masse.
Gone in denial
The publication Pskov province, citing its sources, reported in early April that 60 Pskov soldiers were transferred to Belarus at the beginning of the war, from where they were going to be sent to Ukraine. They refused and returned to Pskov. "Now most of them are fired, but some are threatened with criminal cases," the newspaper reports.
The human rights organization Agora, headed by Pavel Chikov, reported that "refuseniks" are fired from their jobs and pressure is applied to them. He said that on February 25, 12 employees of the Krasnodar OMON from the Plastun company refused to comply with the requirements of the command to leave for Ukraine.
"The fighters of the Russian Guard explained the refusal to carry out the order as illegal. None of them had a foreign passport with them, nor an intention to leave the territory of Russia, while their direct official duties were limited to the territory of the Russian Federation," Chikov wrote.
According to him, none of the OMON fighters agreed to work in Ukraine and was not notified about the conditions and tasks of such a transfer.
Thrown for slaughter
On March 12, the Ukrainian edition of Grati reported that about 80 Russian conscripts and contract soldiers from among the marines refused to take part in the war. The publication refers to a source in the system of law enforcement agencies of the Ministry of Defense in the annexed Crimea.
According to the publication, at the beginning of the war, the military was transferred to the Kherson region and "they realized that they were not going to have exercises, as the commanders said, but participation in battles against Ukrainian forces." After that, they declared their refusal to fight, and they were returned to the Crimea.
Grati claims that among the 80 "refuseniks" there were also conscripts who had served only a few months, and some had not even had time to take the oath. Military prosecutors forced them to fight, threatening them with criminal cases, but this pressure stopped after Putin announced that the conscripts would not participate in hostilities in Ukraine.
The publication notes that those who had already signed a contract for military service, despite the refusals, "were involved in the war."
Without equipment
We know about a similar situation with the military from South Ossetia. In late March, South Ossetian telegram channels reported that contractors from the 4th Guards Military Base were returning to the capital of the breakaway region of Georgia, Tskhinvali. Later, former President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity confirmed this information, but did not name the number of those who returned and their reasons.
Mediazon, citing a source, reported that the South Ossetian military was sent to Ukraine "empty": the soldiers bought protection and equipment with their own money.
According to the source, about 300 South Ossetian soldiers returned to the republic after five days of hostilities. They made such a decision after one of the soldiers was blown up by a mine, and the commander refused to send his body home.
Can't punish
Servicemen who refuse to participate in the war against Ukraine are threatened with criminal cases or fired, but it is difficult to bring them to criminal responsibility, Mediazona.
At the disposal of the editors was a recording of a conversation between a serviceman, who, after returning from Ukraine, refused to go there again, with senior officers. One of them demanded to “load him into an APC and take him there.”
He also threatened to tell the refusenik's father that his son was a coward. Mediazona notes that there is a known case when the corresponding defamatory letters were sent not only to the father of a serviceman who refused to fight, but also to his neighbors. The letter said, in particular: “We are very sorry that you failed to instill in your son such qualities as honesty, steadfastness, decency and love for your Fatherland. In this regard, your son was dismissed from the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”
The commander began to threaten another soldier with criminal prosecution. When he stated that he had consulted with lawyers and knew that he was not threatened with a criminal case, the commander began to tell that Ukraine “soon will attack your village, what will you do then” and “we are not at war with Ukraine, but with the whole world, with the EU and NATO”.