Russian soldiers quit over forced Ukraine fighting, report claims
News agency Reuters spoke to Russian soldiers who say they were made to serve in Ukraine
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Your support makes all the difference.Russian soldiers are reportedly quitting the army because they've been sent fight in the Ukraine, despite the Kremlin insisting their soldiers are not being dispatched over the border.
Though there are repeated signs of a Russian military presence in Ukraine, such as army equipment, Vladimir Putin has consistently denied it.
New reports from Reuters have cast further doubt on their assertions, after the news agency spoke to soldiers willing to discuss quitting the army over the Ukraine conflict.
The official line from Putin’s government is that any Russian soldier seen in Ukraine is there as a “volunteer”. No one, it says, has been forced to go.
Yet the converse, according to these soldiers and backed up by human rights activists, seems to be true.
Quitting the army is not very common in Russia but former soldiers have quietly begun coming forward to admit that they had. Reuters spoke with five, including two who said that their main reason was not wanting to serve in Ukraine.
One said he was told he was going to southern Russia. Instead, he ended up in Ukraine. “After we crossed the border, a lieutenant colonel said we could be sent to jail if we didn't fulfil orders. Some soldiers refused to stay there,“ said the soldier, a member of elite Kantemirovskaya tank division.
Some apparently left and returned to Russia – where the soldier heard that they were not actually sent to jail.
He said that they were told they would get an allowance which included extra money for combat and medals. This turned out not to be the case, and when the group arrived in Ukraine, 14 of them decided to leave.
Another soldier told the agency that he was a member of a missile unit stationed on the Ukraine border. They were told to fire missiles to “practise”. He and four others quit the army to avoid being sent to Ukraine.
Russia is also thought to have been, Reuters said, promising new soldiers financial incentives to sign contracts that make them professional soldiers. Those carrying out their 12 months mandatory military service cannot be sent abroad.
Soldiers’ wages have gone up considerably since 2012 – some even getting double the average monthly wage of around £400.
It is also thought that Russia is moving further afield to recruit professional soldiers, with many now coming from central and eastern regions.
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