- A video is circulating on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter) that shows Russian soldiers brutally attacking other soldiers.
- The footage was shot in an occupied Ukrainian hamlet.
- Violence in the Russian army is “old,” recalls an expert from 20 Minutes, who is not “surprised” by these images.
Two men on the ground, beaten and kicked with sticks. One of them has a bloody mouth. In front of him, a man points a gun and fires to the side. A few meters behind them, five men are busy digging a hole. In Russian, a man insults the men on the ground and blames them for the deaths of other soldiers. He also accuses them of carrying drugs.
These violent images have been circulating on Telegram and X (formerly Twitter) since Tuesday. Several Ukrainian media outlets reported on this and pointed out the brutality in the Russian army. The video was filmed in Kulykivs’ke, a hamlet about fifty kilometers from Mariupol identified him Michael Sheldon, a researcher at investigative site Bellingcat. The place is on Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian army. The video is not dated, but the leaves still on the trees and the rather dry ground indicate that the video was not filmed in winter.
Who are these men? One of them bears the “Gladiator Storm” insignia, the new name for the “Storm – Z” units, as noted by Michael Sheldon.
These units, also called “Storm – Z”, consist of former prisoners. They are not assigned to fixed units, as Michael Gjerstad, a researcher specializing in the Russian army at the IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies), explains to 20 Minutes: “The missions they are usually assigned are the most violent. They are the first to be killed. »
According to our observations, another man seen at the beginning of the video is wearing a patch that resembles a Wagner group badge.
One of the men visible in the video wears a badge similar to that of the Wagner group. – Screenshot video X and Alexander Galperin/SPUTNIK/SIPA
“The man may be a veteran of the Wagner group and wears it as a badge of honor, or he may be one of the members of the group who are now contractually affiliated with the Russian army,” the researcher explains.
Michael Gjerstad was not “surprised” by the video. Violence against conscripts in the Russian army is “systemic” and “old,” he emphasizes. “It has been a common thread in the Russian army for more than a century,” he adds. This phenomenon even has a name: Dedovshchina, or “rule of the grandfathers.” The NGO Human Rights Watch had already denounced the violence in the Russian army in 2004.
Since 2008, the duration of military service in Russia has been reduced to one year. In the same year, a comprehensive reform to professionalize the army was introduced. “In hindsight, it failed,” the researcher concludes.