Of the 78 soldiers in Kaminski’s unit who disobeyed orders, some have been ordered to be held in a makeshift lane for days.
By Miltos Sakellaris
For four and a half months, Corporal Ilya Kaminsky and his fellow soldiers from the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade have been at war as part of a fierce Russian military offensive that has slowly pushed Ukrainian troops back into eastern Ukraine.
In early July the corporal said “enough”: He refused to fight and became one of 78 soldiers in his brigade who refused orders. “I am morally exhausted. There is absolutely no trust in the authorities and senior management, from the very first word.”Kaminsky, 20, told Current Time in a July 17 phone interview recorded from an undisclosed location in Luhansk.
“Because they ignore everything. They ignore any requests. They started stepping in and offering some alternatives when people started specifically saying no,” he said. “I’m tired. Homesickness. My daughter was born three months ago. I still haven’t seen her”.
Nearly five months after Europe’s biggest war since World War II, a growing number of Russian soldiers like Kaminsky are refusing to fight, demanding to go home or not go to Ukraine in the first place. Russian rights activists say hundreds, possibly thousands, of soldiers are reluctant to receive orders to deploy, continue fighting or remain on the battlefield without deserting or returning home.
Of the 78 soldiers in Kaminski’s unit who disobeyed orders, some have been ordered to be held in a makeshift lane for days.
The troops are adding to a “headache” for Russian commanders as they struggle to replenish depleted units across the roughly 480-kilometer (300-mile) front line that stretches from east of Kharkiv in the northeast to Kherson in south-central Ukraine.
Western intelligence agencies say Russia’s losses are significant. Britain’s top military commander told the BBC this week that up to 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the invasion began on February 24.
The Kremlin has refused to call for a general mobilization to replace lost troops, instead using what analysts have described as a “stealth, hybrid” campaign to recruit new troops: using private military companies, extensive age restrictions, lucrative financial incentives and some times coercive persuasion to reinforce their troops.
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