Professional soldiers from Buryatia [a republic in eastern Siberia, part of the Russian Federation – ed.] who refused to fight in Ukraine have reported that their commanders were pressuring and threatening them.
Source: Seven Buryat professional soldiers in a commentary for Mediazona
Details: Alexandra Garmazhapova, head of the Free Buryatia Foundation, has submitted a recording of statements made by Buryat professional soldiers to Mediazona.
At the beginning of the recording, the soldiers introduce themselves, saying that their names are: Ilya Kaminsky, Aldar Dylykov, Vladimir Malkov, Andrey Martynov, Sergey Arsenov, Viktor Durnykh, and Nikolay Vasilyev. All of them served in military unit No. 32364 in Buryatia. After a few months of the war in Ukraine, they submitted reports refusing to continue to take part in it.
“All of us have written reports. Our commanders responded negatively, they began to threaten us…They threatened us because of our reports and said that none of us will make it to our point of permanent deployment. Even the [Russian-appointed] head of the military investigative department for Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson oblasts came. We were told that an assault unit had been created near Luhansk and that after being sent to pre-trial detention centre No.1 everyone will be sent there [to join the assault unit – ed.],” one of the soldiers said.
He also explained that groups of between 8 and 10 soldiers are taken to a military command post, where they are locked up for three to four days in a garage and only given food once a day. They are then sent to a pre-trial detention centre near Luhansk, which the Russians have created in the premises of a former rehabilitation centre.
Mediazona’s source said she was aware of a total of 77 reports submitted by soldiers who were serving in Buryatia, in which the soldiers refused to continue to take part in hostilities. She said that one of the reasons for these mass refusals might be the fact that “there is no longer a single tank in the brigade” while the Ukrainian soldiers have “rocket launchers and howitzers”. “The brigade was left to die,” as the soldier’s mother said. Ilya Kaminsky’s mother described the situation in similar terms.
Earlier: On 28 June, the wives of the servicemen who had been said to be taking part in military “training” in Ukraine recorded a video address to the head of the Republic of Buryatia, asking for their husbands to be allowed to return home.
Source: Ukrainian pravda