Russian commanders in occupied southern Ukraine are facing mass mutinies as regiments refuse to fight due to lack of basic supplies and pay, it has been claimed.
The Russian 127th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps reportedly ignored orders to join a battle near the southern city of Kherson, according to intelligence information cited by Ukraine’s Southern Operations Command.
Soldiers who led the mutiny told their superiors they could not fight because they had endured water shortages and tight rations for weeks without receiving their paychecks.
Russian intelligence services GRU and FSB “examined” those responsible for leading the revolt and “removed” them from their positions, according to the Ukrainian military.
A harrowing fate awaits the mutineers – many so-called “resisters” are shipped off to detention centers in Russian-occupied territories, where they are forced to return to the front lines or are held in appalling conditions and tortured.
It comes as Kremlin-installed local government officials in Kherson said they have been forced to postpone a “referendum” on whether the city should join the Russian Federation over security concerns over Ukrainian counter-offensives in the region.
Russian commanders are facing mutinies from units based in southern Kherson Oblast, while Ukrainian forces continue their counterattacks
There is evidence that Russian soldiers who refuse to fight are shipped to detention centers in Bryanka in the occupied Lugansk region
The father of a detained Russian soldier claimed the security of such camps is run by mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group — also known as Putin’s private army
The 127th Regiment is just one of several Russian units that have chosen to ignore orders amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Despite the risk of ending up in a torture camp or being executed, many of Putin’s troops have walked out en masse after learning the truth about the conflict they instigated.
Others laid down their arms after weeks of fighting while severely short of food, water and ammunition.
One unity from the 113th Rifle Regiment of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic released a video via the messaging app Telegram in June announcing that they could no longer fight due to a total lack of equipment and rampant illnesses and injuries, but that their superiors “received our grievances.” interpreted”. as sabotage”.
The commander can be heard on the recordings: “Our company survived the cold and hunger for a long period of time without material support, medical care or food.
“Our unit was mobilized without medical examinations, and there are people in our unit who, according to the laws of the Donetsk People’s Republic, should not be mobilized.
“Many questions arise which are ignored by command… Show respect to your officers – what can you gain by sending your soldiers to their deaths?”
A company commander in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic has complained that his men are being sent to the front lines without food, equipment or medicine
Mercenaries of the Wagner Group are seen in Popasna, Severodonetsk District of Lugansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine
Meanwhile, in July, the father of a Russian soldier claimed that troops trying to submit letters of resignation or resigning from their posts would be arrested and taken to a makeshift detention center in Bryanka in the occupied Luhansk region.
There they are either herded back to the front lines or divided into small groups and crammed into very small spaces where they are subjected to appalling conditions and various forms of torture.
“They keep people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight,” the man told The Insider.
“They are kept in pits, tortured and stuff like that. That’s what people who came from there say,” he added, claiming the security of such camps is run by mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group – also known as Putin’s private army.
Ukrainian soldiers fire on the front lines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Sat Sept. 3, 2022
People walk past a crater resulting from an explosion that hit an area near the Ukrainian Red Cross Society yesterday in a Russian attack in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Monday September 5, 2022
The 127th Regiment’s refusal to fight in a battle near Kherson comes as the Ukrainian military reports successes in counterattacking on the south-eastern front and says it has recaptured several areas and destroyed targets including a pontoon bridge, an ammunition depot and a control center of the Russian army.
“The Ukrainian counteroffensive is making demonstrable progress,” said the US-based research group Institute for the Study of War, noting gains in Kherson and the eastern Donetsk region.
Since the first weeks of the Russian invasion in February, Kherson has been largely under Russian control and is now being forcibly integrated into its economy.
Moscow-backed authorities have been talking for several weeks of holding referendums to officially annex occupied territories to Russia, as happened with the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
But Kirill Stremousov, a pro-Moscow official in Kherson, told Russian state television that although we are preparing for a referendum, “we will pause for the time being” due to “all events that are occurring” amid Ukrainian counter-offensives.
He later moderated his comments, saying the move was “not a break” as no exact date had been set and insisted voting would continue despite any interference.
“The referendum will definitely take place. Nobody will cancel it, ”said Stremousov.
