soldiers of russian army who refuse to fight in Ukraine are being executed or sent on suicide missions by their superiors, reveals an investigation by Verstka, a newspaper currently operating in exile, which collected testimonies from soldiers, relatives of the fatal victims, also referring to videos and official complaints.
101 Russian soldiers were identified, accused of murder, torture or fatally punishing their soldiers, with at least 150 deaths, although the newspaper believes that the number is much higher, according to “The Guardian”. O Kremlin has denied allegations of indiscipline by Russian troops, although reports of homicides among comrades within the army have been circulating since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
According to the investigation, soldiers claim that commanders appointed “executive shooters”, tasked with shooting those who refuse to fight and instructed to dispose of the bodies in rivers or shallow graves, registering them as killed in combat.
Others also document the use of drones and grenades, to “finish off once and for all” injured or retreating soldiers, actions later masked as attacks on the battlefield.
However, in addition to the quick deaths, soldiers who disobeyed their leaders’ orders were allegedly thrown into pits covered with metal grates, doused with water and beaten for hours or days, and were even forced, at certain times, to fight each other to the death.
“One of these cases appeared in a video that circulated in May 2025, from Ukrainian groups monitoring Russian forces. The footage shows two men naked in a pit, while a voice off camera says: ‘Commander Kama basically said that whoever beats the other to death gets out of the pit,’” says “The Guardian”. The fight ends when one of the men falls to the ground, motionless.
The lives of these soldiers have a value that, if not paid, could cost them a one-way trip on a suicide mission.
According to the investigation, those who could not or refused to pay the amounts requested by their superiors were forced to walk towards enemy troops, in order to be “zeroed” (army jargon for “dead”). The Russian newspaper “The Moscow Times” also reveals that some officers confiscated their soldiers’ bank cards and asked for their PIN code, allegedly “for the soldiers’ families”.
Initially, reports of internal executions referred to military penal units made up of “tens of thousands” of ex-convicts recruited from Russian prisons, according to the British newspaper. However, the practices extended to regular military units, paving the way for the “normalization of violence” through a “culture of impunity”.
Most of the officers identified are mid-level military personnel in their 30s and 40s, several of them veterans of previous Russian campaigns, of whom, according to the Moscow newspaper, only five were accused of murdering subordinates, although Verstka was able to obtain detailed information, including the name, rank, age and military unit of more than 60 perpetrators. “The Moscow Times” also points out that several of these commanders received decorations, including five awarded the title “Hero of Russia”.
Verstka had access to official data showing that the main Russian Military Prosecutor’s Office received around 29,000 complaints from soldiers and families in the first half of 2025 alone, of which more than 12,000 were related to punishments from superiors.
Text written by André Sousa and edited by Mafalda Ganhão
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