Around 60 Russian paratroopers are expected to be sentenced for staging a mutiny and refusing to fight in Ukraine, according to reports.
The men, who came from Pskov, Russia’s main airborne forces headquarters, could now face jail time for their disobedience.
The refusenik troops had been sent to Belarus as part of the invasion force, but were ordered back to their base in Pskov in disgrace after their mutiny.
Some have been fired and labeled “cowards,” while others are facing the Russian equivalent of a court-martial, which will almost certainly result in jail time.
One of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s deputies is said to have been dispatched to Pskov to deal with the insubordination.
Even though Pskov is a main HQ of Russia’s most elite airborne forces, Ukraine claimed the troops were elite paratroopers, but this has yet to be confirmed.
‘Around 60 servicemen from Pskov refused to go to battle on Ukrainian soil, according to our sources,’ the Russian opposition publication Pskovskaya Guberniya claimed.
‘They were first taken to the Republic of Belarus once the war began, and then they were returned to their base in Pskov.’
‘The most of them are being dismissed at the moment, but others are facing criminal charges.’
It’s the latest in a string of incidents in which Russian forces have refused to carry out Vladimir Putin’s orders to invade Ukraine and ‘deNazify’ the country.
Vladimir Safronov, a 23-year-old Russian soldier from Pskov, informed his Ukrainian interrogators about rationing issues and how his superiors were plundering the civilian population.
‘With food, things are horrible; we have to save it all the time,’ he remarked.
‘We frequently encounter situations where a ration meant for one person is split by two persons.
‘In occupied Ukraine, we primarily eat what we find inside [civilian] residences.’
‘I’ve personally witnessed a lot of looting,’ he claimed.
‘I oppose it; it was primarily senior sergeants and the commander who perpetrated it…’
‘I witnessed civilians hiding, individuals who were unable to flee, and people who were living in constant fear.’
‘I felt terrible for them, and finding them was terrifying.’