Member-only story
Concrete Evidence of Personnel Issues in the Russian Army
We knew Russia had a personnel problem. Rumors of desertion have been rife on Telegram. They range from 200 troops melting into the forest north of Kharkiv to a few troops here or there deserting. Anecdotally they are still looking for an NCO and three soldiers who walked off post near Belgorod.
Then we have seen reports of refuseniks across the force. This started early in the war, with a Marine brigade, for example, refusing to land on Odesa. Some of these sounded too good to be true.
The Moscow Times got the goods with what I call Colonial troops that were thrown unto the meat grinder to protect Russian troops. The story they published today sheds a lot of light.
The Lede tells the story very well:
Thousands of military personnel from different regions of Russia refuse to fight in Ukraine. One such case occurred in Dagestan: 300 contractors from Buinaksk laid down their weapons and began the dismissal procedure, the correspondent of The Moscow Times found out. Fighters who do not want to go to the front face pressure, threats of physical violence and criminal prosecution. And despite this, human rights defenders still record mass layoffs from the army.
We knew this was happening. I suspect it’s beyond thousands at this point. This is making pursuing a war harder for the Russian military. Personnel that refuses to fight is always problematic; this one is the force strength of Battalion Tactical Groups, the core of the Russian army organization.
Remember, short of a declaration of war, contract soldiers can break their contracts for almost any reason. It takes knowing this, however. These are but two examples and are instructive. The first is Dagestanis, the second will be from Buryat:
”Military personnel claimed that they had problems with uniforms and weapons,” explains the military lawyer from Moscow, to whom the contractors appealed. “If a serviceman has been absent from the duty station for more than 10 days, criminal liability may be applied to him, and now the military prosecutor’s office is investigating the case.”
We have seen these complaints ranging from lack of equipment to care from Donbas troops as well. The lack of uniforms, weapons…