1/ A mobilised Russian soldier who was imprisoned by the Russian army in a basement in occupied eastern Ukraine has spoken about his experiences. He says he was denied food and his officers threatened that wives and mothers would be raped if they did not return to the front. ⬇️
2/ The independent Russian media outlet ASTRA has interviewed Mikhail N., a mobilised man from Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East. He was not allowed to have a medical examination despite suffering from ill-health caused by a traumatic brain injury in 2018.
3/ Like many other mobiks, he says he received little or no training when he joined his assigned unit, the 60th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade. He was flown to Rostov-on-Don, where he was supposed to get training and be stationed in the "green zone" along the border.
4/ However, immediately after arriving at Rostov on 2 October the mobilised men were sent on buses into the heart of the war zone in Donetsk oblast. They retreated from the front line on 12 October and 14 men including Mikhail wrote reports of their refusal to fight.
5/ Officers threatened the men with being taken out into the forest and shot. Mikhail and his comrades were imprisoned in a basement in Staromlynivka – they are pictured in the photo at the top of the thread below.
6/ They were subsequently taken into a forest near Mariupol, apparently to evade an inspection by another part of the Russian army. They lived in a tent for a week and dug shelters and trenches. Then on 1 November they were brought to a basement-prison in Zavitne Bazhannya.
7/ This location has previously been described in reports by The Insider (see the thread below). The men being held there in October were threatened with being shot and thrown into a mass grave. Their fate isn't known.
8/ Mikhail describes conditions at Zavitne Bazhannya:
"There were two rooms in our basement. My room was about 5 by 3 metres, I guess. One side of the room was just covered with bunk beds. Bunk beds made out of planks. We slept in sleeping bags on the boards.
"There were two rooms in our basement. My room was about 5 by 3 metres, I guess. One side of the room was just covered with bunk beds. Bunk beds made out of planks. We slept in sleeping bags on the boards.
9/ There was nothing else in the room. They did not feed us for the first three days. We were given expired rations and that was it.
Then we were allowed to use our own money to buy a cooker and gas bottles to boil water for tea and noodles.
Then we were allowed to use our own money to buy a cooker and gas bottles to boil water for tea and noodles.
10/ Then they started feeding us once a day, 'cooked' by some young man, I can't say cooked, my parents feed their dogs better at home.
If you have acquaintances in the army, ask them what a stew called "chicken meat" is. It's a tin can, not a stew.
If you have acquaintances in the army, ask them what a stew called "chicken meat" is. It's a tin can, not a stew.
11/ We never bathed once. There's no place to wash. We had some wet wipes and that was it. We had to go to the toilet in the side of the room and you had to knock to get out in a big one. And there was no guarantee they'd open. Do what you want.
12/ Then we earned some favours and were allowed out more often. The basement was warm because the room was small and we breathed there."
According to Mikhail, there were up to 28 people in the two small rooms. The captives were put under intense pressure to return to the front.
According to Mikhail, there were up to 28 people in the two small rooms. The captives were put under intense pressure to return to the front.
13/ "They tried in every way to get us back to the front. "If you don't pick up your assault rifles now, our enemies will come to your homes and rape your wives and mothers," those sort of words. They shouted and threatened.
14/ Of those with whom I was initially there, no one was beaten up, nor was I. But the other boys, who were brought to us from the basement in Perevalsk, said that they were led one by one into the basement and people shot over their heads into the wall with a submachine gun."
15/ [The Perevalsk facility is reportedly a former Ukrainian penal colony, which is now partly destroyed by bombing. Video of the conditions men were being held in there is in the thread below.]
16/ Mikhail and one other person with health problems were let out on 14 November and taken back to Russia in a KAMAZ truck with a group of contract (professional) soldiers being rotated out of the front line. He says he and his companion were dumped in Russia "on all fours".
17/ "When we arrived, roughly speaking, the two of us were thrown out of the KAMAZ and told that that was it, you were on your way to the hospital".
Now that he's free, Mikhail wants to campaign for his comrades to be released and for their illegal jailors to be punished.
Now that he's free, Mikhail wants to campaign for his comrades to be released and for their illegal jailors to be punished.
18/ "I would like to know the names of those freaks who told us we were nobody. We don't know any of them at all, they didn't introduce themselves," he says. /end
Source:
telegra.ph
Source:
telegra.ph
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