Russian soldiers are refusing to fight in Ukraine

"One morning I got a call from the division commander's office in Amur Oblast, where Pavlik served," said a woman from Russia's Tambov region, who asked to be identified only as Yelena. "The person now: 'Do you know that we are looking for your son, he has disappeared?' Pavlik should have boarded the train together with the other troops, but he did not. And five other soldiers were with him."

Yelena's son, Pavlik, was serving in the Amur region, located in the Far East, when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Almost immediately, his unit was sent to the front and he served 40 days on the battlefield. His unit then returned to Russia to regroup, Yelena told Radio Free Europe's North.Realities. When his unit was preparing to return to Ukraine, Pavlik refused to join.

"If he doesn't want to go back there, do I have to push him, tell him, 'Grab your gun and go,'" Yelena said. "Those who were not there have no right to judge those who were".

Yelena's son is one of a significant number — but the exact number is unknown — of Russian contract soldiers who have either refused to fight in Ukraine or who have fought there but don't want to go. again.

Lawyer Pavel Chikov, founder of the legal aid organization Agora, wrote in Telegram that more than 1,000 military personnel and National Guard troops from at least seven Russian regions have refused to go to Ukraine.

Ruslan Leviyev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team, a Russian non-governmental organization that monitors public information about the Russian military, told Current Time that the real number of such cases could be much higher and that soldiers' refusals to go to fight in Ukraine, could seriously damage Russia's efforts to regroup and resume its military operations in eastern Ukraine.

"The phenomenon of rejection is becoming systematic," said Leviyev. "Such soldiers are found in almost every unit that has returned from Ukraine. According to our estimates, from 20 to 40 percent of contract servicemen who have returned from Ukraine and are preparing to return, are refusing to return to combat.

Leviyev said most of these soldiers are not deserters, but could face legal consequences for refusing to obey orders. However, to convict these soldiers, prosecutors must prove that the order was legal and that the refusal to carry it out caused "substantial harm" to the military.

"From the cases we have seen, they are facing the threat of being prosecuted and being intimidated by military prosecutors," he said. "But so far none of them have been prosecuted, based on what we've seen."

Human rights lawyers said the government's reluctance to call the invasion of Ukraine "war" or to declare martial law could offer some protection from more serious consequences to soldiers who are refusing to fight.

"Citizens have the right to refuse to go to a foreign war and kill people," said lawyer from the Agora organization, Mikhail Benyash. He has provided legal services to some soldiers who have refused to fight.

"They also have the right not to participate in a 'special military operation'." By definition, only special forces troops, trained for such operations are sent [in 'special military operations]...'.

An unknown number of soldiers, however, have been dismissed from military service because they refused to fight in Ukraine, it wrote in Telegram lawyer Maksim Grebenyuk. He said the question of “what are the consequences of refusing to serve in the ‘special military operation,’” as Moscow insists the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine be called, has become “the most frequent question” he has received in recent weeks.

Grebenyuk also published a photograph of a stamp allegedly placed on the military service booklet of a soldier who refused to serve in Ukraine. Grebenyuk did not release the name of the soldier, but said he served in the 136th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade.

"Inclined to treason, lies and deceit", can be seen in the seal placed on this booklet.

"Refusal to take part in the special military operation on the territories of the LNR, DNR and Ukraine," the pamphlet continued, using acronyms for the parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-backed separatists, territories that Moscow recognized as sovereign states.

Grenenyuk said the soldier told him he had served for seven months in Syria and had been given "leave and rehabilitation leave", but that measure was revoked when he was ordered to go to Ukraine.

In a tweet, Leonid Vokov, a top adviser to jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, wrote: “They put a stamp on this thing? This means that it is a massive phenomenon. Good".

Such a stamp on the military service booklet makes it difficult for soldiers to find work or enroll in higher education institutions to attend school.

The Russian military insists its war in Ukraine is largely going according to plan, but Western intelligence analysts have documented severe shortages of supplies, communication problems, preparation and other aspects that have hampered Russian operations. Moscow has said 1,351 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the war on February 24, but other sources have said the real toll is much higher. The Ukrainian military estimates that more than 18,000 Russian soldiers have been killed./REL