Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian soldiers who have refused to fight have reported being beaten and handcuffed to trees for days without food and water, while their commanders profit from bribes given by relatives desperate to avoid their loved ones being sent into suicidal 'meat wave' assaults. ⬇️

2/ Two brothers from Russia's Shor ethnic group (a Turkic minority numbering only some 15,000 people) were killed – either by their own side or by the Ukrainians – after prolonged starvation and torture ordered by their commander in the 74th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade.

3/ Semyon Kiskorov (pictured here) and his brother Gennady served with the brigade's 1st motorised rifle battalion. They were mobilised in October 2022 and were subsequently wounded several times. Semyon was allowed to recuperate at home but this was denied to Gennady.

4/ In the summer of 2023, the two brothers refused to continue fighting. They were put on construction duty (presumably digging trenches) until 1 December 2023, during which time they suffered severe abuse. Semyon himself described what happened:

5/ "In July (2023), Captain Rubanov, deputy commander of the military-political work battalion [i.e. a political officer] of the first motorised rifle battalion of the 74th Independent Motorised Rifle Brigade, started putting pressure on us."

6/ "First, they sent us, the refuseniks, to a construction site, and then gave the order to tie us to a tree, not to feed or water us. A contract soldier returned from the hospital and refused to go on a combat mission.

7/ "Then the officer beat him and ordered him to be tied to a tree. To be released, you had to pay 50-100,000 rubles ($546–$1,100). Sometimes the handcuffs were nailed to the tree so that the person could not even sit down.

8/ "This was not only for refuseniks, but also for those who were caught drunk or did not obey an order. Here any word is an order."

9/ According to a friend of Gennady, the men were told, "if you don't go into battle, we will chase you [there] anyway, but without support, etc., so that you will surely [be killed]."

10/ In December 2023, Semyon found that his younger brother Gennady had been tied to a tree for two days. He videoed the scene (shown at the top of this thread) and sent it home to their family.

11/ At this point, Gennady's wife says, "he was already exhausted and depressed, Semyon did not rule out that he would give in and go on a mission where he would be killed."

12/ "He himself held on even after several days of hunger and cold, in the rain, when he himself was also chained to a tree."

13/ Gennady's wife says that she sent bribes to the commander to protect her husband from "combat missions". The demands escalated, to the point that she paid 50,000 rubles to ensure that he would not be sent into assaults.

14/ “At first the amounts were small – to buy food, medical supplies, chip in for fuel, then they chipped in to buy an expensive dog for the commander, and then to avoid being sent into assaults, just to stay alive."

15/ After the video of Gennady's torture was published on social media, the Kiskorov brothers were called in for a conversation with Captain Rubanov. They had previously requested to be transferred to civilian service. Instead, both men disappeared.

16/ At the start of August 2024, Semyon's body was returned home in a closed casket which his family was banned from opening. His remains were identified through DNA testing. Gennady's fate is unknown, but he is also believed to be dead.

17/ The wives, or widows, of the two men have made a formal complaint to the military authorities. However, the paperwork has been sent to the men's last known location in the Donetsk and Luhansk 'People's Republics' and, as usual, no investigation was ever opened.

18/ The treatment of the Kiskorovs is consistent with widespread reports of torture and murder of refuseniks at the hands of Russian commanders and fellow soldiers (see thread below).

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1761130119173988755

19/ As a member of another Russian unit said of his regiment, "we have a complete ass, chaos, lawlessness, a swinish attitude towards people, and we ourselves are turning into embittered animals." /end

Source:
sibreal.org/a/v-kuzbasse-p…