Read on Twitter
1/ Asking for leave is now enough to land a Russian soldier in an illegal basement-prison, according to a new report. Mobilised soldier Aleksandr Ignatov says he was detained and then attached to a regiment for "undesirables" after he asked for long-overdue leave. ⬇️
2/ The ASTRA Telegram channel has published an account and part of an interview with Ignatov, who says he was imprisoned in a partly destroyed former Ukrainian prison at Perevalsk "for asking for leave from the commander of the 291st [Guards Motorised Rifle] Regiment."
The regiment is currently fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison facility is much further east, in the occupied Luhansk region. There were several reports last year of Russian soldiers being detained there. ASTRA reports that it's still in use.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1584835244980854784
4/ According to Ignatov, after being detained he was "attached to the 57th brigade ... I don't know whether I am listed in this brigade or not. I don't know the documents there either." He says the brigade is for "undesirables".
5/ The brigade has been in the news before; it was reported last winter that it comprised a mixture of soldiers who had become 'refuseniks' and mercenaries from the Wagner Group, who presumably kept the refuseniks in line.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1609535873376452610
6/ As ASTRA reports, Ignatov says that he was "mobilised back in the autumn of 2022 and has never received leave since then. He also said that the command treats him and other servicemen "like dogs"."
7/ Ignatov's mother has appealed for assistance on behalf of her son to the military prosecutor's office, which as usual has turned down the appeal with the response that no violations have been found.
8/ She says that "while he was in the so-called basement, he received threats that they would deal with his family, staged a mock execution, morally pressurised and humiliated him.
9/ "In January he was sent to the military medical commission in Simferopol, where the commission revealed two intervertebral herniated discs, myopia, osteochondrosis, but he was still assigned category A - "Ready"."
10/ Being assigned an exaggerated level of fitness is reportedly commonplace in the Russian army, where doctors are under pressure to send even obviously wounded and unfit men back to the front lines. /end
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