In dungeons – pits Russian soldiers who refuse to fight: They starve and are threatened with execution

Vladimir Putin portrays them as heroes: Tens of thousands of Russians ready and willing to give their lives in his “special military operation” against Ukraine.

But as the harsh and cold winter and the death toll mount, more and more stories are emerging of Russian soldiers refusing to fight and suffering horrific consequences.

Men – including conscripts – are beaten, thrown bloodied into underground prisons, starved, threatened with long prison terms or suffer from virtual executionsas a result of their weapons being shot down, their relatives said.

At least nine locations possibly holding hundreds of soldiers have so far been revealed, with those who manage to return to Russia saying relatives of those who have disappeared are never notified.

ASTRA, a Telegram channel run by dissident Russian journalists, first began reporting on the detention camps in October when it emerged that 20 soldiers were being held in squalid conditions in the occupied Luhansk regions.
The men complained in a video smuggled out of detention that they were kept in a basement, forced to defecate in a communal bucket and had to sleep on the floor under a roof that dripped onto their bodies.
The group, recruited under Putin’s “partial mobilization” order, said they were sent there after they refused to go to the front line.
They were eventually removed from the basement and taken to a command post in the town of Rubizhne where they were held for another 10 days before prosecutors came to threaten them with long prison terms unless they agreed to fight.

When they again refused, they were taken to a former prison near the town of Alchevsk which is the last known location.
Another “secret” underground was then revealed, in Zavitne Bazhannya, Donetsk region, where another 20 people are reportedly being held.
“There is no toilet in the basement, the prisoners have not been washed for several weeks and are fed once a day,” the ASTRA station reported.
Russian news website Insider also reported in the same basement finding a woman named Elena Kasina, who said her 33-year-old husband was being held there after refusing to fight.
He said he was a miner by trade who enlisted in the Russian army – ostensibly as a vehicle mechanic – but was actually given one day of shooting practice, one day of digging trenches and then sent to the front.

Elena said her husband “was among a group of men who refused to storm a Ukrainian position before being threatened with execution and taking to the streets.”
They were sent to an underground detention center in mid-October, held for two days without foodordered them back to the front, then returned to the basement when they refused.

The BBC spoke to a father whose son was an army officer when the war broke out in Ukraine, and initially agreed to go fight, believing it was the right thing to do.
When he saw the Russian war machine in action, the man’s son changed his mind and – along with “several” others – wrote a letter refusing to go into battle.
“They were stripped of their weapons and placed under armed guard,” he said.
A “different group” of Russian soldiers arrived and began threatening them to return to the front.
“They beat him and then took him out as if they were going to shoot him. He was made to lie on the ground and told to count to ten. Denied. So they hit him on the head several times with a pistol. He told me his face was covered in blood ».

Another woman, called Oxana, said her son had refused to lead his men on a mission of “certain death” and was locked in one of the dungeons as a result.
“They haven’t seen the light for five months“, he told the BBC.
Her son, along with four other men, are now officially listed as “missing” by the Russian military, which claims the building they were in was bombed.

ASTRA says it has uncovered at least nine locations across Luhansk and Donetsk where Russian troops were stationed.
Most are small, housing only a few dozen people at each location, but one is said to be quite large as there 300 soldiers.

Ekaterina Belova, whose brother is being held at the scene, told local reporters: “They are not getting food. They are not allowed to leave.
“They are not allowed to be washed. They can’t charge the phone. These people have, literally, nothing human.”

Another woman, who spoke anonymously but said her husband is being held in Zaitsevo, added: “They are fed once a day: one dry food for five to six people. They are constantly threatened.’

Putin is believed to have lost over 100,000 men killed and wounded during this period, with thousands of tanks, hundreds of aircraft and dozens of naval vessels either damaged or destroyed.
His army has gained some ground in the southern and eastern parts of the country, but has been fought to a stalemate and pushed back in several key areas.

To plug the “hole” in the front line of the war due to extreme casualties, Putin was forced to declare “partial mobilization” and call 300,000 men to fight, sparking protests and pushing approx 700,000 men to leave the country rather than risk being sent to the front.

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