Russian contractors who refuse to continue participating in the war with Ukraine are being held in custody in the Lugansk region, which is controlled by the Russian military. They are forced to return to the front by force. This was told The Insider on condition of anonymity by the father of one of the soldiers. The identity of the military was confirmed by human rights activist Alexei Tabalov.
After three months of service, Russian contractors were promised vacations and the opportunity to refuse to participate in hostilities, but when the military decided to leave Ukraine, writing refusals, they were detained and taken to the city of Bryanka, Luhansk region. They have been in custody for over a month now.
“Won back three months, they had to go home. They were deployed from the direction of Lugansk and taken there. They put me in the prosecutor's office, where the Luhansk military are dealing with Russian soldiers who have written a refusal to war. These people are holding them there because they refused,” the father said.
According to the man, contractors are kept in terrible conditions, as eyewitnesses say. “Some pits, torture and the like. This is what the people who come from there say.”
At the same time, the man noted that the soldiers did not want to return to the front.
“Yes, it’s better to give your soul to God than to go back there. They no longer want to be up to their necks in the blood of their friends and close officers. Let the Russian soldier be hurt and bad, but he will not go. I have no information that someone went back from there, ”said the father.
He added that his son signed the contract even before the start of the war, after which an order came that contract soldiers should be sent for a “special operation” for three months.
“They were told that this was a special operation. They said that they would not participate in the hostilities, but would be at the border, because they did not have combat skills, ”the man notes.
His son was taken to Lugansk, where he "recaptured the factories, pulled out the corpses of his own and others."
The Russian military leadership, according to the father, said that it had nothing to do with the detentions of "refuseniks", saying that the contract soldiers were being held by the Luhansk military.
On July 21, the Nestka publication reported that a center was being formed in the Luhansk region, where servicemen who refused to fight in Ukraine were taken. There are at least 234 people from different military units. Many are being held in basements and garages.
Judging by the stories of servicemen and their relatives, people are kept in basements in small groups. The functions of the guards were performed by employees of a private military organization. Relatives of the military believe that we are talking about PMC Wagner.
Nestka told the story of one of the Russian soldiers who were captured in Bryanka. On July 8, contract worker Alexander (name changed), together with his colleagues from the Sakhalin military unit, wrote a report refusing to participate in hostilities. He then informed his father that he was being summoned to meet with a certain general.
After this meeting, he and other servicemen who wrote reports were taken to a basement in Bryanka. There he and other prisoners, writes "Layout", are forced to unload warehouses. Also, according to Alexander, “refuseniks” are offered to either return to their unit and continue to fight, or go to another, but also stay at the front.
Together with Alexander, at least 33 more people are being held in Bryanka. He sent his father a photograph of a list of the names of all the prisoners. It is at the disposal of Layout, however, according to the publication, it is impossible to confirm the accuracy and authenticity of the list.
On July 19, Alexander stopped communicating. The last thing he sent to his father was a message that two prisoners had been taken from the basement to the pre-trial detention center.
Nestka writes that, according to open-source research, 1,793 Russian military personnel refused to participate in it during the war. The head of the Free Buryatia Foundation, Alexandra Garmazhapova , said that there were at least 500 “refuseniks” from Buryatia: they terminated the contract and were able to return home.
One of the relatives of the soldier currently being held in Bryanka told The Insider that there are a lot of “refuseniks”. The military command refuses to let them go home, fearing that the rest of the contractors will follow their example.