There is further evidence that Russian soldiers who refuse to fight in Ukraine are being kept in a basement in the Luhansk region, beaten and forced to return to the front.
Another soldier who managed to get out of prison told The Insider that he and his colleagues were kept for a week in a military unit in Bryanka. After that, they were taken away in an unknown direction and put in the basement. According to him, unknown people, presumably military men from the PMC Wagner, beat them with batons and forced them to return to the front.
After two days in that basement, five of the six soldiers who were beaten and put under psychological pressure agreed to return to the front. One refused, he was left in the basement, and his further fate is still unknown.
Those who agreed to return to the war were taken to the front lines (the exact location is unknown). They were handed over to the military PMCs, without issuing weapons and ammunition.
According to the military, for two days, all five carried out the instructions of the “chief” commander of this PMC unit (name not known): they carried water and ammunition.
According to the returned contractor, the commander stated that he could kill the military if he saw fit. “I don’t give a damn about you at all, I can at least shoot you, at least shoot your knees, no one will look for you anyway, so do everything we tell you,” he said.
The soldiers did not have any documents or telephones with them. On the third day, two military men decided to leave this place and independently went towards Lugansk. Three other soldiers remained.
They managed to get to Luhansk and cross the border post to the territory of the Russian Federation. As the “refuseniks” said, they were let through at the checkpoint, because they were not listed as fugitives and said that they were going on vacation. The border guards contacted their unit and received confirmation that such military personnel are on duty.
As the military man said, there were soldiers from his unit in Bryanka, for whom the political officer allegedly came and took them back to the front.
The soldier, like others who got out of prison in the Lugansk region, said that in Bryanka a certain colonel Nechiporenko, who compiled distribution lists, spoke with them. The fact that the military is guarded by PMC mercenaries was told by the guards themselves.
On July 26, it became known that the Russian military, who refused to fight in Ukraine, was being held in custody in Bryanka, Luhansk region, beaten and forced to return to the front. The fighters of the Wagner PMC and representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense - Colonel Nechiporenko and Lieutenant Colonel Tumanov "break" people. This was told to The Insider by several military men who managed to get out of prison.
The Russian military leadership denies any involvement in what is happening in Bryanka, stating that the contract soldiers are being held by the Lugansk military.
At least 130 people are kept in the "special center", people continue to be taken back to the front and new ones are brought in. The Insider published information about 17 of them. The father of one of the contract soldiers, who are actually being held in custody, told The Insider that after three months of service, the Russian contract soldiers were promised a vacation and the opportunity to refuse to participate in hostilities. When they wrote refusals, they were detained and taken to the same Bryanka in the Lugansk region. They have been in custody for over a month now.