'Dosvedanya Kremlin!': Russian Kherson regiment refuses to fight in Ukraine over lack of supplies and no pay
KHERSON, RUSSIA: Regiments in the Russian-occupied south of Ukraine are reportedly mutinying in droves because they lack basic supplies and aren't getting paid. According to information cited by Ukraine's southern operational command, the Russian 127th regiment of the 1st Army Corps allegedly disobeyed orders to join a battle close to the southern city of Kherson.
Soldiers who led the mutiny informed superiors that they were unable to fight because they had endured weeks of food shortages and water restrictions including no pay. Ukraine's military stated that the rebel leaders were "investigated" and "removed" from their positions by Russia's GRU and FSB intelligence agencies.
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The fate of the mutineers is likely to be grim because many so-called "refuseniks" are sent to detention facilities in Russian-occupied territory where they are either forced to return to the front lines or are tortured while being held there. As a result of safety concerns brought on by Ukrainian counteroffensives in the area, local government officials in Kherson, who were installed by the Kremlin, claimed they were forced to suspend a referendum on whether the city should join the Russian Federation, read a report by The Daily Mail.
A unit from the so-called Donetsk People's Republic's 113th rifle regiment claimed in a video posted in June that they were unable to fight due to a complete lack of equipment, widespread illness, and injuries, but that their superiors "interpreted complaints as sabotage."
The commander is heard in the video saying, "Our company overcame cold and hunger and for a significant period of time we did so without material support, medical supplies, or food." He added, "Our unit was mobilized without any medical checks, and there are members of our unit who, according to the laws of the Donetsk People's Republic, should not have been mobilized. Many questions come up that command ignores. Respect your officers and ask yourself why you would want to send your soldiers to their deaths."
A Russian soldier's father claimed in July that when soldiers try to resign or leave their posts, they are arrested and taken to Bryanka, a makeshift detention facility in the occupied Luhansk region. According to him, either they are beaten back to the front lines or they are divided into small groups and placed in cramped areas where they are subjected to horrific conditions and various forms of torture.
He told Insider, "They are keeping people there because they wanted to leave, refused to fight. They are held in pits, tortured, and things like that. That's what people who have come from there say." He went on to claim that mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group, also known as Putin's private army, oversee the security of such camps.
The 127th regiment's refusal to participate in a conflict close to Kherson comes as the Ukrainian military claims success in counterattacks along the southern front, recapturing several areas and destroying targets like a pontoon bridge, an ammunitions depot, and a Russian army command center.
According to the US-based research organization Institute for the Study of War, gains in Kherson and the eastern Donetsk region demonstrate that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is moving forward. Kherson has been largely under Russian control since the first few weeks of its invasion in February, and it is currently being coercively incorporated into Russia's economy.
However, a pro-Moscow official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian state television that despite planning for a referendum they would pause for now because of all the events that are occurring amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Later, he clarified his remarks, asserting, "Action was not a pause because no specific date had been established. The referendum will take place no matter what. No one will cancel it."