Russian soldiers who refuse to fight on the front lines in Ukraine are reportedly being held in “torture pits” run by the notorious Wagner Group in the Luhansk region.
After signing contracts with the Russian Army, volunteers were told they would be sent on three-month tours of duty, at the end of which they would be allowed to either quit or sign on for another term.
But, according to the father of one young Russian soldier, if the increasingly demoralised troops try to leave they are detained and shipped off to a prison camp in Bryanka in the Russian-occupied Luhansk territory.
READ MORE: Russian soldiers given just five days' training before being sent 'straight to a bodybag'
He said the Russian soldiers are refusing to go back into the front lines because “they no longer want to be up to their ears in the blood of their friends and comrades”.
Many of the soldiers weren’t even prepared for combat, he added: “They were told that this was a special operation. They said that they would not participate in the hostilities, but would be at the border, because they did not have combat skills."
But refusal to take part in Vladimir Putin’s so-called “special operation” in Ukraine sees them locked up in the makeshift detention centre in Luhansk.
“They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight,” the anonymous source told The Insider.
“There are held in pits, tortured and things like that. That's what people who have come from there say”.
He says the camps are run by the feared Wagner Group, a notorious private military contractor that has been described as “Putin’s private army”.
Russia has ‘already lost’ war in Ukraine, says UK's armed forces chief
According to research quoted by news organisation Nestka, 1,793 Russian military personnel have refused to return to the front line.
Meanwhile, those Russian troops that are still fighting in Ukraine are become increasingly desperate and lawless, according to Human Rights Watch.
“Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,” said Yulia Gorbunova, the organisation’s senior Ukraine researcher.
“Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the apparent war crimes we have documented, and Russian authorities need to end such abuses immediately and understand that they can, and will, be held accountable.”
READ NEXT:
- Russia 'using stolen western weapons in Ukraine to get away with sickening war crimes'
- Chilling pictures show Ukrainian mum and daughter moments before Putin's missiles struck
- Putin pal says Brit ‘mercenaries’ will be shot to 'protect' Britain from an uprising
- Top Brit soldiers training thousands of Ukrainian recruits to fight Putin in England
Source: Read Full Article
