Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Injured Russian soldiers are being sent into assaults on crutches, are ordered to kill their own wounded on the battlefield to prevent them holding up attacks, and are attacked by their own side's drones if they do not continue moving forward, according to two eyewitnesses. ⬇️

2/ Two Russian soldiers trapped in a basement in the Donetsk region town of Toretsk, which Russia is currently assaulting, have sent a video account of their experiences. They say they have been sent on a one-way mission and now want to get to an evacuation point and survive.

3/ Lieutenant Oleg Guivik and Private Nikolai Popruhin from the 132nd Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade sustained wounds in the attack on Toretsk. Guivik is a pro-Russian Ukrainian from Krasne near Bakhmut who joined a militia in 2014 to "reunite Donbass with Russia".

4/ Guivik says that his views changed significantly after the full-scale invasion of 2022. "At first, everything was fine, but then incomprehensible assaults began, when they simply began to destroy the guys. And one fine day last year I had a row with the [unit] chief of staff."

5/ "We disagreed on the use of personnel. As a result, I was sent from headquarters as a commander of a regular motorized rifle platoon, where I served for three months. Soon I was sent to an area unknown to me to participate in assault operations.

6/ "They took away my main firepower, and since I did not know the area, they simply began to destroy me. I asked to retreat, at least to regroup. But the authorities said: take this forest strip, even if you die.

7/ "I refused to participate in this event further, said that I would not let the guys go to their deaths without reconnaissance and support. I was summoned to headquarters, I was beaten by the commander of the third motorised rifle battalion.

8/ "They made me write an explanation convenient for them and then sent me to a pit ...

I was there for seven days in the damp, in complete darkness. I was wounded. I asked those who were guarding me to provide me with medical assistance.

9/ "I demanded that they bring an investigator to me and tell me what I was accused of. They either responded indifferently to all this, or just laughed. One fine day I could not stand it.

10/ "I saw that this was not a military commandant's office, not the military police, because everything was civilian. I was simply in a place I did not understand. Who this was, what this was – I did not know.

11/ "Knowing the reputation of the command staff of my battalion, I had a feeling that I was simply brought to some criminal elements. And I ran away, not feeling any criminal responsibility."

12/ Guivik was able to return home and lived there for five months, before he was eventually caught and charged with desertion. He was sent to the front again on 1 October and, as is common with deserters, was sent to one of the assault units. Few survive these, he says.

13/ "Anyone who survives this meat grinder can confirm my words, but of course they won't be allowed to leave, because that's how it's set up. You go here and die, so you can't tell the outside world what happened. Many don't know what's going on here.

14/ "In the middle of the night, two of us are led in an unknown direction purely on the radio station's [i.e. command post's] instructions. They take us to some building and say, come in. And there, Ukrainian soldiers meet them with fire and destroy them.

15/ "If the first pair doesn't make it, the next pair goes, and the same fate awaits them. And it doesn't matter whether you're wounded or not. There was a case when a pair was walking and they came under artillery fire. One of the guys lost his leg, he couldn't continue moving.

16/ "His partner received an order to zero him out, that is, kill him, and continue moving on his own."

In his latest and probably final mission, Guivik says he and his comrades were "stupidly led by the drone and the radio station."

17/ Wounded men were ordered to attack too: "They sent us on an assault on crutches". If they retreated, their own drone would attack them. "Right-left, right-left. If you don't want to go, they throw a grenade from above to speed you up."

18/ Guivik's testimony is consistent with many previous reports of injured Russian soldiers being forced to go into attacks on crutches and carry out one-way attacks. Although casualties are huge, commanders still consider their men to be disposable. /end

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1833148086442434577

Source:
t.me/astrapress/681…