Of Miltou Sakellari
When the soldiers of a select brigade of the Russian army were warned in early April to prepare for a second deployment in the wider region of Ukraine, there was intense fear in its ranks. The unit, which had stopped in Russia’s Far East before the war, first entered Ukraine from Belarus when the Kremlin launched a military operation in late February. Their feelings were mixed. They knew they did not want to go back to Ukrainian territory, where they had fought their first battles.
«It soon became clear that they were not all together in this. Many of us just did not want to go back“Dmitry told the Guardian, a member of the unit who asked not to be named in the report under his real name. «“I want to go back to my family – and not to a coffin,” said the man who agreed to speak to the British newspaper. Dmitry, along with eight other Russian soldiers, decided to tell their commanders that they were refusing to rejoin their country’s military operations in Ukraine. “They were furious. But in the end they calmed down because they could not do much“, He stated. He was soon transferred to Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, where he has since been stationed. “I served five years in the army. My contract expires in June. “I will serve the time I have left and then I will be out of here,” he said. «I have nothing to be ashamed of. We are not officially in a state of war, so they could not force me to stay.»
The difficulties of the Russian army
The refusal of this group of soldiers to fight demonstrates some of the military difficulties faced by the Russian army as a result of Moscow’s political decision not to formally declare war on Ukraine, preferring to describe it as a “special military operation”. According to Russian military rules, troops who refuse to fight in Ukraine can face dismissal, but can not be prosecuted, said Mikhail Benias, a lawyer who advises soldiers who choose not to continue fighting in Ukraine.
The same lawyer stated that “Hundreds of soldiers had contacted his team for advice on how they could avoid being sent to fight». Among them were 12 national guards from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, who were fired after refusing to go to Ukraine. As he pointed out to the Guardian, the commanders of the respective Russian military units try to threaten the soldiers with imprisonment, in case they disagree. Many soldiers, therefore, chose to be fired or transferred instead of going to the front.
In addition to Dmitry, there are other Russian soldiers who refuse to fight on Ukrainian soil. Sergei Bokov is a 23-year-old soldier who at the end of last April decided to leave the war and return to his homeland. “Our commanders did not say anything because we were not the first to leave,” Bokov told the BBC. According to the same lawyer, it would be more difficult for the soldiers to refuse to fight if Russia had declared a full-scale war in Ukraine. “During the war, the rules are completely different. Denial would then mean much harsher punishments. “They would look at time in prison,” he said.
At least for now, it is unclear how many Russian soldiers have refused to fight. In practice, these stories of Russian soldiers refusing to enter Ukraine and take part in the fighting show what many analysts and many Western governments point out: one of Russia’s biggest problems in the war it has declared is a severe shortage of troops. Moscow initially put about 80 percent of its main ground combat force – 150,000 men – into the war in February, according to Western officials.
“Putin has to make a decision on mobilization in the coming weeks,” he told Guardian Rob Lee, military analyst. “Russia does not have enough ground units with contract soldiers for a viable rotation. “Troops are running out – they will not be able to sustain it in battle for long,” he said.
Recently, however, the Russian authorities have quietly stepped up their efforts to recruit new troops as it has become clear that a quick victory in Ukraine was impossible.
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