A number of Russian soldiers have been arrested in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region for refusing to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, their lawyer said.
Andrei Rinchino, legal head of the Free Buryatia Foundation, told independent Russian media outlet MediaZona that 17 soldiers who had signed short-term contracts with Russia’s defense ministry were jailed after refusing to continue taking part in the war and trying to defend their to terminate contracts.
The foundation describes itself on its website as “an anti-war movement against the criminal war in Ukraine, launched by the Russian Federation led by Vladimir Putin”.
According to the lawyer, one of the soldiers said that about three weeks ago they tried to cancel their contracts because they no longer wanted to fight in Putin’s war. Rinchino said some of them were then taken back to Russia while others were ordered to wait.
Russian soldiers guard the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, Ukraine, May 18, 2022. A number of Russian soldiers have been arrested in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region for refusing to fight, their lawyer said. OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images
According to reports, however, a week later the soldiers ordered to wait were again sent to the front line in Luhansk.
Moscow claimed the military victory on Sunday after capturing the Luhansk region, which together with the Donetsk region comprises the Donbass.
Rinchino said that on the way to the front line, the soldiers’ car broke down and they were left at the side of the road. They reportedly encountered troops from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, who fed them and had them hidden in a basement.
“But our brigade didn’t come and we decided to go back [to Russia]’ said a soldier.
Rinchino said the group decided to take a bus to Moscow and were arrested by military police upon arrival.
The soldiers’ passports and military ID cards were reportedly confiscated and taken to the town of Alchevsk in Luhansk, where they were detained.
Rinchino stressed that some of the detainees’ contracts had expired.
“They exploit the illiteracy of the fighters,” said the lawyer. “First, they say your contract will be automatically renewed. Secondly, you are being told that you will start a new contract, that this is all in accordance with the law, that this is how it should be.”
“No one knows the law,” he added.
Rinchino said one of the detained soldiers partially lost his hearing after being hit by a shell blast, but he is still not allowed to return home.
The lawyer said the Russian commanders are refusing to explain why the soldiers are being held by force.
“Today one of them asked why they were being held here,” Rinchino said. “He was immediately put in a cell.”
In March, just weeks after Putin’s war, viral video surfaced that appeared to show angry Russian soldiers complaining that they were ill-equipped and being ordered to go to a region of Ukraine without it there was clear planning by Moscow.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.